1. Introduction

The Chamber of Deputies is currently discussing the amendment to Act No. 262/2006 Coll., the Labour Code, which is a response to the need to bring our laws into line with EU judicial practice and legislation. The Labour Code has been amended 39 times since it was first drawn up; the last major amendment was Act No. 303/2013 Coll., adopted with the aim of bringing other laws into line with the new provisions of civil law.

The current amendment is focused on several areas and particularly alters the regulations governing changes in employment, introduces more detailed provisions for home office work under Czech law, defines the term top manager and treats their employment contracts in a more flexible manner, changes how leave time is calculated and also modifies the transfer of rights and obligations arising from a labour-law relationship.

2. Change in employment

The current Labour Code treats this matter in Section 41 et seq. as an assignment to other work or a transfer. According to Section 41 the employer is obliged to assign an employee to other work if, for example, the employee becomes long unfit to perform their current work, if an occupational medical assessment states that the employee cannot continue to perform their current work due to a work-related injury or occupational illness, in the case of pregnant employees for whom such work is prohibited, etc. If an employee becomes temporarily unfit to perform their current work, the employer has the option to assign them to other work.

The employer must first assign that employee under an employment contract before being entitled to transfer the employee to other suitable work, including without the employee’s consent.

Once the amendment enters into effect, if an employee ceases to meet the requirements for their job, the employer is obliged to assign that employee to other work. A fundamental change will occur if the employer is unable to transfer the employee to suitable work in accordance with their employment contract; the employer is then obliged to offer the employee other suitable work.

If the employer fails to offer the employee other suitable work, this constitutes an obstruction on the part of the employer, during which time the employee is entitled to receive full compensation for their wage (salary). However, if the employer has no other suitable work or if the employee becomes unable to perform their original work through a fault of their own, they are not entitled to compensation for their wage (salary). If the employee refuses to accept other suitable work, on the other hand, this constitutes an obstruction on the part of the employee, for which they are not entitled to compensation for their wage (salary).

The employer will now be able to assign an employee to work other than that agreed for the amount of time necessary without that employee’s consent only if this is necessary to avoid an emergency, natural disaster or other imminent accident or to mitigate their immediate consequences.

3. Home office

The current Labour Code deals only marginally with employees working under a home office scheme in the provisions of Section 317; this also only applies to employees who schedule their own working hours.

The current wording states that such employees are not subject to the provisions governing the scheduling of working hours, downtime or interruptions in work caused by poor weather; in the case of other important personal impediments to work (as defined in Government Regulation No. 590/2006 Coll.) the employee is not entitled to wage or salary compensation and is not entitled to a wage, salary or time off in lieu for overtime work or work on public holidays.

Once the amendment enters into effect the provisions of Section 317 will be considerably expanded and will relate to all employees who regularly work outside the employer’s workplace.

In particular the employer will now be obliged to reimburse employees for the costs associated with their work and communication with the employer. This reimbursement cannot be included in the remuneration for the work, although the employer can agree with the employee on a flat-rate payment. The employer will also be obliged to provide hardware and software for employees working under a home office scheme via the internet. Employees, on the other hand, will now be obliged to protect data and information relating to their work using the internet.

The law also now stipulates that the employer is obliged to schedule such employees’ work into shifts, on which the employer will be obliged to base the calculation when providing wage or salary compensation for work on a public holiday or for temporary inability to work. Besides the bonus for overtime work, however, employees working under a home office scheme are no longer entitled to a bonus for work on a public holiday, work at night or work in a difficult working environment.

4. Top managerial employees

The current wording of Labour Code covers managerial employees in the provisions of Section 11, which state that managerial employees of an employer mean employees who are, at the individual degrees of management for the employer, authorised to specify work tasks and assign them to subordinate employees, organise, manage and check their work, and give them binding instructions for this purpose.

According to the provisions of Section 73, a managerial employee is an employee who is either directly subordinate to the employer or directly subordinate to an employee who is directly subordinate to the employer, provided that there is another managerial employee subordinate to that employee.

The amendment introduces the new concept of top manager. This is defined similarly to a managerial employee pursuant to Section 73 of the Labour Code, the difference being that the top manager does not necessarily have a subordinate managerial employee; these are therefore the first two levels of managerial positions. The top manager must also be an employee with whom the employer has agreed a salary or salary component amounting to at least 75 000 CZK to which the top manager is entitled in each calendar month.

Section 317b of the amendment entails the following differences in the employment contract of these employees compared to regular employees:

• Employees themselves may schedule their working hours, including on rest days, although for no more than 48 hours per week

• Employees are not entitled to a bonus for overtime work, work at night, on Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays

• Employees are not entitled to wage compensation for important personal impediments to work, with the exception of incapacity to work

5. Other changes 

Besides the more important changes described above, the amendment to the Labour Code also brings about the following changes, which, although not so fundamental, are also worthy of explanation in this article:

• Multi-shift work. The Labour Code previously only recognised work on two shifts and three shifts as multi-shift work; the provisions of Section 78 now treat work on two shifts and multi-shift work in general; the amendment thus reflects the practice of work on more than three shifts.

• Agreements on work and work performance. The employer will now be also obliged to pay the guaranteed wage to employees under agreements on work and work performance. Employees will now be entitled to breaks at work, a continuous day of rest, a continuous day of rest in the week and restrictions are also placed on work at nights.

• Return from parental leave. The employer will now be obliged to assign employees returning from parental leave to their original work and workplace; previously this duty only applied for employees returning from maternity leave.

6. Conclusion 

The proposed amendment to the Labour Code will particularly ensure greater flexibility in the legislation governing employees in managerial positions, both through the actual definition of a top manager as well as through more detailed provisions concerning the home office.

The amendment also strives to ensure greater protection for employees, primarily by broadening the requirement that changes in employment contracts be agreed by both parties, defining the employer’s obligations to employees working on a home office basis, the application of a number of employment contract institutes to employees working on the basis of agreements and the employer’s new obligation to assign employees returning from parental leave to their original work and workplace.

The amendment is currently in its second reading in the Chamber of Deputies. Several dozen proposals for changes have been filed regarding the amendment, such as the proposal to consistently set the amount of holiday leave in the business and non-business sphere at 5 weeks; it may therefore be expected that the amendment will be adopted with a different wording to that originally proposed. On 7 June 2017 a decision was passed to suspend the discussion process; it is still unclear when the amendment will come into effect.

For more information, please contact our office’s partner, Mgr. Jiří Kučera, e-mail:jkucera@kuceralegal.cz ; tel.: +420604242241.