Labour & Employment law

Electronic mail nowadays constitutes one of the most common forms of communication, not only in the corporate sphere. E-mail is slowly but surely becoming the new mailbox that must be checked daily—even during vacation. he Supreme Court has so ruled, thus confirming what had been assumed until now. At which point does electronic mail delivery occur, and why is this critical moment 'M' so important? It is at this point that deadlines or time periods start to run, and it is important to keep track of them so that they do not run unnoticed. We discuss the practical issues surrounding delivery below.

Illegal work and clandestine employment mediation remain significant issues in the labour market. The amendment to the Labour Inspection Act introduces new powers for inspectors, including the possibility of covertly recording audiovisual material and more effective prosecution of illegal practices. What changes await employers, and what impact will the new inspection procedures have on the business environment? Read more in our article.

The area of labour law has become an increasingly debated area of law in recent years, which is also reflected in the more frequent amendments to labour legislation. This year, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs issued an amendment to the Labour Code aimed at increasing the flexibility of labour relations. In particular, it concerns the reduction of the administrative workload, the development of digitalisation in the public administration and work-life balance. The term 'flexible amendment' has therefore been used in public discourse to refer to this amendment. The changes were supposed to come into force on 1 January 2025, but the amendment was not put up for discussion until the Chamber of Deputies' session starting on 19 November 2024 and successfully passed its first reading on 4 December. Due to this delayed discussion, the planned effective date of 1 January 2025 will be postponed, probably until spring of 2025. However, the part of Amendment 230/2024 that also increases the flexibility of labour law will be effective from the beginning of this year. The main areas to be affected by the flexible amendment are reviewed in detail below in this article. The content of these may still change in the course of the legislative process, but for the time being we can anticipate the following form of the amendment.

Compromise between employee and employer - words which apply to the institute of the competition clause. Both parties make concessions where one provides financial compensation and the other tolerates a temporary restriction of the right. The statutory regulation can be found in §310 of Act No. 262/2006 Coll., the Labour Code...

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.