On 19 September 2023, the long-awaited amendment to the Labour Code (published in the Collection of Laws under No. 281/2023 Coll.) entered into force. The majority of the changes take effect from 1 October 2023. The remaining part then from 1 January 2024. Below we provide an overview of the most significant areas affected by the amendment to the Labour Code.
Extension of the employer’s information obligation (effective from 1. 10. 2023)
Although employers have an information obligation under the Labour Code in its current wording, the amendment substantially extends this information obligation. Employers will newly be obliged to inform employees, for example, of the procedure which the employer and employee are required to observe when terminating the employment relationship, of the conditions of the probationary period, or of overtime work. The amendment to the Labour Code also introduces an entirely new information obligation in relation to employees posted to the territory of another state. Furthermore, employers will have to fulfil the information obligation also towards employees employed on the basis of an agreement to perform work (dohoda o provedení práce) and an agreement on work activity (dohoda o pracovní činnosti). Furthermore, the time limit within which the information obligation must be fulfilled is being shortened from the current one month to only 7 days from the commencement of the employment relationship.
The information obligation may be fulfilled in any manner that satisfies the written form – in practice, however, the information obligation is most frequently fulfilled within employment contracts (or DPP and DPČ) or within internal regulations – we therefore recommend updating these documents so that they correspond to the new legal regulation.
We add that existing employees in respect of whom the employer has already fulfilled the information obligation according to the existing legal regulation, the employer is obliged to inform again to the new extent only in the event that they request this.
Remote work (effective from 1. 10. 2023)
The new legal regulation expressly provides that remote work (work from home) is only possible on the basis of a written agreement between the employer and employee. An exception is only possible in the case of special situations established by law (e.g. in the case of a state of emergency, etc.). An agreement on remote work must always be concluded before commencing the performance of such work. In the case of existing employees who already work from home, a time limit for concluding this agreement is established as no later than 31. 10. 2023. The amendment enables the employee and employer to agree on the conditions for providing reimbursement of costs which arise for the employee in connection with remote work (from home). However, it is also possible to stipulate that such reimbursement of costs is not due to the employee.
If, therefore, remote work (from home) is being performed, we recommend updating existing agreements on remote work or preparing new agreements. In this connection, it can also be recommended that such an agreement contain, beyond the statutory requirements, also further provisions concerning the conditions of performing remote work – e.g. provisions on occupational health and safety (BOZP), provisions on the manner of performing work, or provisions on the manner of assigning or delivering work, etc.
Service of documents (effective from 1. 10. 2023)
The amendment also brings long-awaited simplification in the area of service of labour law documents. The changes will affect in particular employment contracts, DPP and DPČ, which will newly be possible to conclude under certain conditions also by means of an electronic communications network or service (e.g. e-mail) and the special regime of service under the Labour Code will not apply to them.
The amendment to the Labour Code further significantly simplifies the service of other labour law documents. From October it will be possible, for example, to serve even important labour law documents (e.g. even notice of termination) only by means of an electronic communications network or service, if the employee has given consent in advance to this method of service in a separate written declaration. A fiction of service is established after 15 days from the day of delivery of the document to the employee’s electronic mail inbox. The employee’s electronic mail address must not be at the employer’s disposal. Given that consent to the service of documents by means of an electronic communications network or service must be given in a “separate written declaration”, in our opinion it is not possible to give this consent, for example, within an employment contract and the employee’s consent should be made in the form of a separate document. Part of this document should also be instruction of the employee concerning the conditions of service of documents by means of an electronic communications network or service.
Changes in the area of DPP and DPČ (effective from 1. 10. 2023 and partially from 1. 1. 2024)
The new legal regulation brings in the area of DPP and DPČ a number of changes which bring DPP and DPČ closer to the regime of employment relationships. Probably the most fundamental change is the establishment of employees’ entitlement to paid leave (this change will take effect from 1 January 2024).
However, further changes are also coming which will be effective from 1 October 2023. Employers will newly be obliged, for example, also to schedule working time for so-called dohodáři, always at least 3 days before the start of the shift or period for which the schedule is prepared (a different time may be stipulated) and to keep records of time worked. The same rules will apply to the working time schedule as to employees employed in an employment relationship (including, for example, rules for continuous rest periods). Connected with this is a new entitlement of dohodáři to time off in the case of established obstacles to work on the part of the employee (e.g. by reason of visiting a doctor) – unlike employees employed in an employment relationship, however, dohodáři will not automatically have an entitlement to wage compensation. These employees will, however, newly have an entitlement to supplements (e.g. for work at night or at weekends or on a public holiday). Having regard to the above, we recommend updating existing DPP and DPČ so that they correspond to the new legal regulation. In this connection, it is also possible to carry out partial modification or supplementation of these agreements so that they better correspond to the needs of employers (e.g. to stipulate shortening of the time limit for notification of the work schedule or its changes, etc.).
For completeness, we state that in addition to the above-mentioned changes, the amendment to the Labour Code brings a number of other innovations, for example in the area of parental leave, working conditions of so-called protected employees, or continuous rest in a week.
David Svoboda
This text was originally prepared by the law firm Mašek, Kočí, Aujezdský in cooperation with the association Association for Electronic Commerce (APEK) as legal circular No. 09/2023 intended for members of this association.
This text was translated from Czech to English using an AI translator.