1. Employment Law Review 2013/2014:
Czech Republic
Publication Date: 21 February 2014 Author(s): Nataša Randlová, Lucie
Hořejší Member Firm(s): Randl Partners Country: Czech Republic
Unlike 2012, when the employment law relationships in the Czech
Republic were severely affected by the great Labour Code Amendment,
the year 2013 was not so turbulent. In spite of this, employers had to cope
with new regulations concerning Occupational Health Care and, primarily,
prepare for the changes imposed by the New Civil Code (the “NCC”) and
the Business Corporations Act (the “BCA”), which represent a complete
recodification of Czech private law effective January 1, 2014.
I. Various Changes Made in 2013
Occupational Health Care
As of April 1, 2013, all employers were required to comply with the
provisions of Act No. 373/2011 Coll., on Specific Healthcare Services, as
amended, in ensuring occupational healthcare for their employees
(formerly “occupational preventative healthcare”).
Now, each employer must have a written contract signed with its provider
addressing the provision of employment-related medical services. The
provider must be either a physician or medical facility authorised to provide
services in the area of general practice medicine or employment
medicine. According to the new regulation, employment-related medical
services include not only preventative examinations assessing the
employee’s health capacity to carry out the job duties assigned to the
given position, but also assessment of the effect of the work and working
conditions on the employee’s health. Employment-related medical
services also include advice concerning health protection at work, as well
as work injury and occupational disease prevention.
At least once a year (and in the case of Work Category 1, once every two
years) the provider/physician must supervise the workplaces and the work,
and train the employees in giving First Aid. The employer is further
obliged to send all employees and applicants for work to be examined by
the physician (entrance, periodical, extraordinary, exit or follow-up medical
examination), except applicants for the performance of non-risk work –
classified as Non-risk Category 1 or 2. Each time the employee must

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undergo a basic check-up comprising of a health and work anamnesis, a
complex physical examination and a basic chemical analysis of urine (the
examination is expected to last 30-60 minutes, depending on the category
and type of examination). The physician may send the employee to
further specialist check-ups if required by the legal regulations or if the
physician considers it necessary.
As soon as the provider has all the documents needed, he or she is
obliged to issue a medical statement and hand it over to the employer. If
the conclusion is that the employee is incapable of work, capable with a
condition or has lost some long-term health capability, the employer must
act in accordance with the statement immediately from the day on which it
is received. If, according to the medical statement, the employee is
capable of performing the job, the employer may start assigning work to
him/her only after the period needed for filing a review application has
lapsed.
Because the employer is obliged to ensure employment-related medical
services for its employees, it must bear the costs of the medical
examinations, with the exception of the entrance examination in the case
of unsuccessful applicants (the law requires the employer to pay entrance
examinations for accepted applicants). The law does permit the employer
to come to a different arrangement with the applicant (for example, that the
employer will never pay the cost of entrance examinations). In this regard,
however, employers must always pay for the entrance examinations of job
applicants for the positions of night-shift employees, as well as minors.
Fixed-term employment
Since the great Labour Code Amendment in 2012 eliminated practically all
exceptions in the case of fixed-term employment, a new amendment to the
Labour Code (passed at the end of May 2013) has reintroduced some
exceptions as of August 1, 2013, in the case of serious operational
reasons on the employer´s side and/or reasons consisting in a specific
nature of the employee’s work. Under the provisions of the amendment,
employers with a trade union may stipulate details concerning the
application of the exception in a written agreement with the trade
union. Employers with no trade union may introduce the exception and
set out its rules with an internal regulation.
The agreement/internal regulation must include:
• details of serious operational reasons/reasons consisting in a specific
nature of the employee’s work – such reasons must be of a nature
proving that the employer cannot be justifiably asked to propose an

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employment contract for an indefinite period;
• rules for a different procedure of the employer in negotiating and
repeating fixed-term employment, which must be adequate to the
reasons stated;
• period of time for which the contract is concluded/the regulation is
issued;
• scope of the employer’s employees to whom the different procedure will
apply.
In the case of the application of the exception, provided the agreed/stated
conditions have been met, the employer will be able to conclude a fixed-
term employment for a period longer than three years, or for more than
three time periods.
Shortening of the Uninterrupted Rest Period between Two Shifts
The same Labour Code amendment that provides for more exceptions to
be introduced in the case of fixed-term employment simultaneously
shortens the period of uninterrupted rest between two shifts from 12 to 11
hours, with the exception of employees under 18 years of age, where the
minimum 12-hour uninterrupted rest period between shifts is maintained.
Salary compensation during temporary incapacity
As of January 1, 2014, compensation for salary paid to an employee who
is temporarily unable to work returns from 21 to the original period of 14
calendar days. The change from 14 to 21 calendar days was implemented
by the Labour Code for the period of January 1, 2012 to December 31,
2013, within the saving measures of the Ministry of Labour and Social
Affairs.
Additional overtime work in health services
The opt-out allowing the heath service professions to agree with the
employer to additional overtime work (amounting up to 12 hours per week)
was limited until the end of the year 2013. Therefore, as of January 1,
2014, no additional overtime work can be performed by employees in
health services. Additionally, all previously concluded agreements in this
regard terminated automatically.
II. Recodification of Czech private law
Along with the changes brought by the NCC and the BCA, other acts and
subordinate legislation required amendment in this respect. In some
cases, only a rewording was needed to ensure the language in different

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regulations was consistent. However, in other cases, important
amendments had to be made.
Labour Code Amendment
Although the employment law has maintained its general independence
from civil law, the newly effective principles do influence it, mainly in the
following areas:
• Invalidity and/or nullity of legal acts – new rules are set out for the
relative and absolute invalidity of legal acts and, in addition, the
concept of nullity is newly introduced in labour legislation and
replaces the previous concept of invalidity in many places;
• Pre-contractual liability – new sanctions are introduced in the form of
damages penalising the dishonest actions of one of the parties
within the process of concluding a labour law contract (i.e.,
employment contracts, agreements to perform work/to complete a
job, agreements on the termination of the employment relationship,
etc.);
• Adhesive / form contracts – when concluding an adhesive contract,
protection of a weaker party (i.e. principally the employee) is
emphasised; in practice, it consists primarily of the employer´s duty
to provide information about various clauses included in the
employment contract, as well as a duty to explain their content in a
manner the weaker party can understand;
• Concluding a contract - an absolute conformity between the proposer
and the acceptor concerning a particular offer to conclude an
agreement is no longer required if an amendment to such offer (as
made by the acceptor) is of a minor significance;
• Course of the lapse period – the NCC introduces a completely new
regulation of the lapse period by setting up various impediments
which either suspend the course of the lapse period, or postpone it;
as a result of the later removal of the impediment, the period starts
running again, however, it cannot expire earlier than after six
months from the date when it started running again – accordingly,
this leads to a significant extension of the lapse periods;
• Agreements on salary deductions – new rules are introduced, e.g. the
maximum amount which can be deducted from salary is newly set
to half of the salary, provided that this amount does not exceed the
maximum limit stipulated by the Civil Procedure Code;
• Inclusion – new legal regulation is introduced, including conditions for
valid inclusion in the employment law relationships and its limits
(which are the same as for the agreements for salary deductions);
• Established practice of parties – an employer’s long-term practice may
now result in legal consequences, i.e. voluntary and regular annual

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bonuses provided to the employees can create an entitlement to
such bonuses, unless employees are informed that such practice
does not stand for any established practice at the employer;
• Compensation for work injuries – the issue of compensation for injuries
has been split into two different regimes of its calculation: (i)
compensation for work injuries, and (ii) compensation for other
injuries, which could result in eventual problems with unequal
conditions;
• Internal regulations of the employer – the NCC expressly prohibits the
employer from unilaterally imposing on employees any obligations
above the law – i.e. most often in the work code;
• Use of certain securing institutes in employment relationships are newly
regulated, alternatively completely excluded;
• The possibility of the statutory representative to immediately cancel an
employment relationship in the case of a minor under 16 years of
age, provided that all the conditions set out by law have been met
and the court has given its consent.
III. Changes Envisaged to be Implemented in 2014
Employment Act
The Employment Act Amendment now under the commenting procedure
in the Parliament concerns the following areas:
• fulfilment of the obligatory portion/number of disabled persons employed
– stricter rules for the alternative fulfilment through the providers of
services or products are to be applied;
• sending foreigners on business trips – it should be made possible for
employers to send Blue and Green Card holders (only Type A –
qualified workers with university education and key staff) to carry
out work away from their workplace; however, this provision will
serve as a confirmation that other foreigners may not be sent out on
business trips;
• reduction of the administrative load concerning employers’ obligation to
have copies of documents proving the existence of the employment
relationship between the employee and the employer at the
workplace; the employer will only have to notify the District Social
Security Administration of the day on which the employee
commenced to work for it – after this obligation has been met, the
existence of the employment relationship in the case of an
inspection will be proved by the control body concerned through the
Integrated Informational System of Labour and Social Affairs.
Act on Residence of the Foreign Nationals in the Czech Republic

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According to Directive 2011/98/EU of the European Parliament and of the
Council, on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-
country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and
on a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in a
Member State (the “Directive”), a new national regulation of this matter
should have been passed as of December 25, 2013.
Unfortunately, a complete newly prepared regulation regarding the
residence of foreign nationals dissolved during the political crisis in the
Czech government in 2013; therefore, an amendment to the current
regulation was prepared in respect of implementation of the
Directive. This amendment, however, was not passed before the
deadline. The amendment is now under a commenting procedure in the
Parliament and concerns mainly the issue of a single permit allowing a
third-country national to reside legally in its territory for the purpose of
work, in particular in the form of so-called employment cards.
Recently, the new Czech government has wanted to return to the idea of a
complete recodification of the Czech regulation of foreign nationals. In this
respect, we expect the government to start the legislative procedure all
over again in 2014, yet, on the basis of the previously agreed principles in
the regulation as prepared by the former government.
Labour Code
Also, rather technical changes to the Labour Code are expected to be
implemented in 2014 in connection to the 2013 recodification
amendment. Several mistakes have already been found in this respect
which had not been taken into account when preparing the accompanying
legislation to the NCC.
Originally posted on the Ius Laboris Knowledge Base:
www.globalhrlaw.com
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