Labour & Employment law

We already wrote about the planned changes in the labour law in June this year, but during the legislative process several important changes have been made that not only concern the content but also the effectiveness of the amended law. In fact, the Chamber of Deputies has stuck to its original proposal, which means that the expected postponement of the amendment's entry into force to 1 January 2024 will not take place. Most of the significant changes are therefore already effective from 1 October 2023.

In the coming weeks, a major amendment to the Labour Code is to be adopted, which is expected to be effective from 1 January 2024. Although it is still possible that the introduced legislation will change, it is most likely to be only partial details. The main purpose of this amendment is to transpose two EU directives. In other words, the state is obliged to incorporate the legislation contained in the directives into the Czech legal system.

In the next few days, a law that newly introduces discounts on employer-paid social insurance as part of the so-called family package will be published in the Collection of Laws. The government package aims to help families in the context of the energy crisis and rising inflation.

For a long time, we may have been used to travel allowance rates being announced on a regular basis with effect from 1 January, whether or not there has been a change in rates. These rates then generally remained unchanged throughout the calendar year. However, the situation has changed in the last two years, and to date there have already been two changes to the travel allowance rates for 2022.

On Friday, 11 March, the Chamber of Deputies approved a bill that will, among other things, allow refugees from Ukraine to work on the basis of a special visa under temporary protection.

Parmi les nombreux changements intervenus dans le domaine de la sécurité sociale avec effet au 1er janvier 2022 figurent notamment des ajustements de la durée du congé de paternité et de la rémunération des accueillants familiaux.

In its ruling of 15 November 2021, Case No. II ÚS 2925/20, the Constitutional Court addressed the question whether the principle of equality is violated in a situation where an injury to an employee's health is compensated as an accident at work under the Labour Code (Section 271c of the Labour Code) and not under general civil law (Section 2958 of the Civil Code).

In its judgment of 21 May 2021, Case No. II ÚS 1889/19, the Constitutional Court resolved the question of the validity of withdrawal from a competition clause (CC) without giving a reason.