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Amendment to the Labour Code

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has published an extensive draft amendment to the Labour Code. The proposed changes are substantial both for employers and employees and warrant appropriate attention. At present, the legislative process is in the stage of comments proceedings and the presented draft amendment is thus likely to be changed.

The proposed changes affect all of the labour law areas. According to the statement of reason accompanying the draft amendment, the objective is to enhance the flexibility of employment relations and to restrict the employers’ administrative burden while strengthening the protection of the employees’ position. However, some of the proposed changes fail to accomplish the stated goals.

A major change brought about by the amendment is the regulation relating to employees that schedule their working time on their own. These include, for example, employees that have put an agreement in place with their employers regarding home office. The draft amendment provides more detailed guidance on work outside the employer’s work place; as compared to the current regulation, it specifies what costs are to be borne by the employers in these cases. Important changes for employers with unionised labour force involve changes in collective negotiations. We also recommend paying attention to the proposed changes to employment arrangements.

One of the vital changes contained in the draft involves regulating agreements on work performed outside employment arrangements, ie agreement on work activities (‘dohoda o pracovní činnosti’) and contract for work (‘dohoda o provedení práce’). The new regulation aligns these agreements closer with employment arrangements and should the draft amendment be adopted, there is a risk that the agreements will not be as flexible as they have been until now.

The draft amendment also envisages changing the way in which the number of vacation days, to which an employee is entitled per calendar year, is calculated. In relation to the vacation entitlement, also the way in which the entitlement is reduced changes. Attention should also be given to the new regulation on working time allocation. The changes principally relate to the rules for stand-by work, work at night, overtime work, or time of rest. Changes were also made to the regulation on the ‘working hours account’ scheme.

Last but not least, we note that the amendment revises the rules for transferring rights and obligations arising from labour relations. As opposed to the current regulation, the amendment provides more detailed guidance on the conditions under which the rights and obligations arising from labour relations are transferred, In addition, changes have also been proposed in relation to remuneration, compensation of travel expenses and delivery of documents to employees.

Jointly with the changes to the Labour Code, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs also proposes amending the relating legal regulations, such as the Labour Inspection Act. The labour inspection changes primarily extend to offences or administrative delicts in the labour area, with some of the sanctions being proposed to become more stringent.

Jan Procházka +420 246 042 913 jprochazka@deloittece.com