A new Employment Act will come into force in the
Czech Republic on 1 October 2004, along with separate legislation
making consequential amendments to a further 55 Acts. Although the
new laws mainly regulate public administration of employment, there
are a number of changes affecting private sector employers,
including:
- more limited rights for employees to carry forward accrued
unused holiday entitlement to the next calendar year. In principle,
employees carrying forward holiday from the previous calendar year
who do not use it before the following 31 October will be obliged
to use it immediately (from 1 November).
- employers will no longer be obliged to pay employees in lieu of
their 4 weeks statutory holiday except in case of termination of
employment.
- the use of seconded/outsourced workers is expressly permitted
but only through licensed employment agencies. The principle of
outsourcing is that the employment agency employs the worker and
retains all principal obligations of an employer (such as paying
wages, operating payroll etc.), whereas the worker works for user,
who has the right to give the worker day-to-day instructions. There
are detailed regulations, including:
-
- a limit of 12 months on outsourced workers working for any one
user (with certain exceptions).
- the user and the agency must ensure that workers enjoy the same
pay and working conditions as the user's own employees with the
same skills doing the same job.
- a new definition of a disabled person is introduced. The way in
which the new definition is interpreted by the relevant authorities
will determine whether or not it increases the number of people who
are classified as disabled.
- there are new rules governing the employment of foreigners
(more detailed information on this will be provided in our next law
now release).