Amendment to the Labor Code – further details on posting employees

Simultaneously with the current amendment to the Labor Code, a transposition amendment to the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services took place. The changes will have an impact on the complexity of verifying the conditions under which the employees of the host company are remunerated, and may also result in an increase in the cost of posting an employee to another country. Nataša Randlová and David Smolař therefore summarize the essence of posting employees within the cross-border provision of services in the holiday double issue of Práce and Mzda magazine, pointing out the most fundamental changes that the new regulation will bring and clarifying some unclear points in legal regulations. Dušan Nitschneider from the Slovak office of Nitschneider & Partners summarizes the rules that Czech employers will have to follow when posting employees to Slovakia.

Amendment to the Labor Code – brief overview

In this article, which can be found in the summer issue of the magazine Práce a Mzda, Nataša Randlová and Jakub Lejsek explain the most important recent amendments of the Labor Code with a simple commentary that draws attention to what is actually changing compared to the current regulation and what employers should focus on in practice.

Providing resources for trade union activity has its limits

Trade unions cannot unilaterally dictate what resources employer has to provide for trade union activities. In the holiday double issue of the magazine Práce and Mzda, Nataša Randlová and Lucie Brázdová explain which activities fall under the “due” performance of trade union activities and also deal with the question of whether a trade union has the right to unilaterally determine resources falling under Section 277 of the Labor Code and enforce provision of such resources by the employer or not.

COVID-19 pandemic and labor law implications

In this year’s fifth issue of Práce a Mzda magazine, Nataša Randlová and Jakub Lejsek offer a brief summary of how to orientate oneself in the issues related to COVID-19, especially from the point of view of the employee and the employer.

HR News No. 4 / June 2020

This year’s fourth edition of our HR News is devoted to a brief summary of the amendment of the Act on Public Health Protection concerning the areas of OSH and Occupational Medical Services (OMS), the changes in deductions from severance payment of the employee, prolongation of the Antivirus program A and B, and introduction of regime C. You may further find information about the new Labour Office program on support of employment which may benefit both employees and employers and also some interesting case-law.

HR News No. 3/ May 2020

As a result of governmental and ministerial measures and precautions relating to the spread of the COVID-19 disease, many employers have been forced to either temporarily close or considerably limit their operations. Other employers have limited the presence of their employees in the workplace voluntarily as a preventive measure of their own. Now, the measures are being lifted and the employees can gradually start returning to their workplaces. However, together with the increase of the number of employees in the workplace the risk of the spread of the disease increases again – it is a kind of a vicious circle. To be able to react properly to the return of your employees, we have prepared a list of precautions which may help to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease in the workplace.

Work-life balance

In the April issue of Práce and Mzda periodical, Nataša Randlová and Lucie Brázdová explain what the new European directive on work-life balance for parents and carers (European Parliament and Council Directive (EU) 2019 / 1158) could mean in practice. Its aim is to enable women to better participate in the labor market and to motivate fathers to get involved in child and household care as soon as possible. It does so particularly by introducing a minimum length of the paternity leave, the amount of paternity and parental allowance and emphasising the right to work from home. The Czech Republic is obliged to transpose the Directive into its legal system by 2 August 2022 at the latest.

Rules for collective redundancies

On the website Lidové noviny, Nataša Randlová explains the requirements set by the Labour Code to which employers must adhere in the event of collective redundancies.

An Article can be found here.

Kurzarbeit

According to the Confederation of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic, the Government should, based on the latest experience, turn the so-called kurzarbeit into a systemic tool for the purposes of future crises. What should kurzarbeit look like in the future? Among the experts invited to online discussion by Jan Rafaj, Vice President of the Confederation of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic, was Nataša Randlová. You can watch the recording of the discussion here.

Rules for collective redundancies

In an article published on 4 May 2020 in Lidové noviny, Nataša Randlová explains the requirements set by the Labour Code to which employers must adhere in the event of collective redundancies.

Trade unionists on company e-mails

Nataša Randlová and Lucie Brázdová explain why the employer may not allow trade unions to communicate through company mails in an April issue of Právní rádce. They also offer alternative solutions, which include personal meetings, message boards, employer’s intranet, social networks and private e-mails, if given voluntarily to trade unions by employees.

HR News No. 2/ March 2020 CORONAVIRUS in Employment Law Context

We have prepared this special issue of HR News titled “Coronavirus in Employment Law Context” in which we summarise answers to the most frequently asked questions about consequences of coronavirus in employment. Although we do not think there is any necessity for alarm (yet), employers should be cautious and consider methods of responding to varied coronavirus scenarios – such as return of employees to work from risk areas, discontinuance of goods deliveries from China or Italy and result-ing decrease in production, or quarantining of workplaces, extended areas like cities, or of employees.

CzELA’s opinion on the functioning of the so-called anonymous trade unions

The newly created anonymous trade unions pose many practical problems with regards to possible interpretations of the existing legal framework of trade unions. The Czech Association of Lawyers Specializing in Labor Law CzELA) has therefore decided to issue an expert opinion on the interpretation of two legal provisions which are closely related to the activities of anonymous trade unions – namely § 277 (providing facilities for the purposes of the trade union activities) and § 61 paragraph 2 (termination of employment of a trade union representative) of the Labour Code. CzELA’s opinion has been published on epravo.cz.

How to dismiss a union leader in a “risk-free” way

In what kind of circumstances does the employer possess a right to dismiss a trade union official even if his trade union organization disagrees with such dismissal?In order to respond to this question, Nataša Randlová and Lucie Brázdová analyzed the Czech courts’ decisions and recommendations of the Committee on Freedom of Association of the International Labor Organization. The article was published in the last issue of the monthly Legal Advisor (Právní rádce) and  www.lexology.com (English).

HR News No. 1/ January 2020

As in previous years, also at the beginning of 2020 we have compiled this traditional special issue of HR News full of numbers and the changes which are connected to the turn of the year, and that you need to be on lookout for in your HR practice. In particular, these changes affect travel allowances, minimum wage and guaranteed minimum wage as well as the amount of income immune from deductions from salary and social security payments.

HR News No. 5/ December 2019

In 2020, the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) starts operation of fully functional and obligatory system of electronic sick notes adopted by Acts No. 259/2017 Coll. and No. 164/2019 Coll. We tried to summarise the topic from the point of view of an HR manager in our last issue of HR News.