The major amendment to the Labor Code will bring further changes with the coming year

Another part of the amendment to the Labor Code will enter into force on 1st of January 2021. The first part of the amendment is already binding to employers and employees since 30th of July 2020.

The amendment as a whole introduces important changes, especially in the area of payed leave calculation, compensation for damage caused by a work related accident or an occupational disease, delivery of documents between employers and employees and introduces a new institute of a shared working position into Czech labor law.

A description of the selected changes and their impacts can be found in the following article.

  • Introduction

On January 1st 2021, another part of the major amendment to Act No. 262/2006 Coll., The Labor Code (hereinafter referred to as the “Labor Code”) will enter into force.

The amendment as a whole pursues the concretization of the rights of the employee and the employer, simplification of the exercise of the rights in question and also supports communication between parties to employment relationships and increases flexibility of the employment relationship.

  • Delivery of documents (Section 334 and following of the Labor Code)

The primary method of delivery to employees is strictly in person at the workplace. Other methods of delivery of documents are possible only if the delivery in person at the workplace is not possible.

  • On the possibilities of termination of employment in connection with a change in the person of the employer (Section 51a of the Labor Code)

The conditions for notice of termination by the employee and for informing about the change by the employer were specified.

The employee must be informed about the transfer of rights and obligations pursuant to Section 51a of the Labor Code at least thirty days before it takes effect. By fulfilling the information obligation of the employer, the fifteen-day period for the notice of termination by the employee begins to run.

If the employee is not properly informed, he or she may give the notice of termination no later than two months from the date on which the transfer takes effect. The employment relationship then ends with the expiration of the fifteen-day notice period, which begins on the day the notice is delivered to the employer.

The transfer of rights and obligations to the new employer is subject to the simultaneous fulfillment of a considerable number of conditions in Section 338, Paragraph 3 of the Labor Code.

  • Obstacles to Work (Section 191, Section 203 Paragraph 2 Letter H and Section 203a of the Labor Code)

The amendment explicitly states that long-term care according to the National Health Insurance Act represents an obstacle to work, i.e. an excused absence of an employee.

  • Discharge or Resignation from Managerial Position (Section 73 and 73a of the Labor Code)

The decision-making practice of the courts has in the past concluded that it is possible to agree between an employee and an employer on the possibility of discharge and resignation on the basis of Section 73 and 73a of the Labor Code from other jobs as well. Newly, the law explicitly limits this possibility exclusively to managerial positions defined in Section 73 Paragraph 3 of the Labor Code.

  • Payed Leave (Section 211 and following of the Labor Code)

With the upcoming year, the method of calculating payed leave will undergo a fundamental change. In order to determine the length of payed leave more fairly, the amendment abolishes payed leave in dependence on number of days worked and the calculation of payed leave will be based on the number of hours in the standard working week of the particular employee.

Extension of payed leave will be also possible if an employee works overtime more than fifty-two times of his or her standard weekly working hours in a calendar year. For each standard working week period worked overtime, payed leave extends by 1/52.

Furthermore, the list of particularly hard or difficult works associated with extra additional payed leave is being expanded. This category will also include jobs in which employees come into contact with biological wastewater and biological waste.

Obstacles to work will be counted for payed leave purposes within the aggregate limit, i.e. twenty times the given working hours in the relevant calendar year.

  • Compensation for damage caused by a work related accident (Section 271f, Section 271g a Section 271i of the Labor Code)

Compensation for non-pecuniary harm is newly granted to a new category of entitled persons, which are a spouse, a partner, children, parents or other close persons who have suffered damage as a result of particularly serious injury to an employee due to a work related accident or an occupational disease, where the consequences are almost as serious as the death of an employee.

The basic amount of compensation will be newly linked to the average wage in the national economy.

  • Introduction of a shared working position (§ 317a of the Labor Code)

From next year on, the Labor Code will be extended by a new flexible form of employment. The institute of shared work position will allow employees to partially schedule working hours.

Through a written agreement on the performance of work on a shared position, two or more employees who perform the same type of work will be able to take turns in one working position, so as to fulfill a jointly set weekly working hours on the basis of a collective working time schedule.

These employees can determine the schedule of working hours by mutual agreement. Unless it is agreed otherwise, they shall always notify the employer at least seven days in advance of who will perform the work and they may change this schedule no more than two days in advance.

Employees must fulfil the standard weekly working hours within a maximum balancing period of four weeks.

  • Conclusion

The amendment to the Labor Code brings a number of important changes in the rights and obligations of employers and employees, which will apply both to existing employment relationships and to employment relationships established after the amendment is in force.

To assess the compliance of the existing internal processes and internal regulations of the employer, as well as contracts of employment with the changes introduced by the amendment to the Labor Code, we recommend seeking professional legal assistance. We will be happy to help you with all the necessary tasks.

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