Amendment to the Labor Code – Effective as of 1 August 2024

13.08.2024 16:39

On 31 July 2024, an amendment to the Labor Code was published in the Collection of Laws under number 230/2024 Coll. This is not, however, the much talked-about "flexibilization amendment" but, rather, a law which primarily changes the rules on minimum and guaranteed wages and salaries. In principle, this amending legislation comes into force on 1 August 2024.

Our labor legislation has, in this time of the Olympic Games, also sought to break records and the law actually came into force about 8 hours after its publication in the Collection of Laws.

However, major changes, that have the potential to affect most of you, will not take effect until 1 January 2025.

The Amendment Act primarily affects the following areas:

• The majority held by trade unions – changes to the rules under which a collective agreement can be concluded by an employer with more than one trade union;
• The working regime, in which employees can schedule their own working hours in agreement with the employer, is extended to cases where the employee performs work at the employer’s workplace in addition to work outside the employer’s workplace. According to the new legislation, it will therefore be possible to agree on a scheme whereby an employee performing work at the employer’s workplace will (wholly or to an agreed extent) schedule his/her own working time into shifts;
• The rules for the performance of work in the healthcare sector are amended;
• The notion of guaranteed wages is abolished,e. only the minimum wage will apply to employees remunerated by wages, and the setting of other levels of wage will depend on the employer or on the employer’s agreement with the trade union, if there is one;
• The rules for determining the minimum wage are changing, as the system should henceforth be predictable in that it will be linked to the average wage in the national economy;
• In the public sector, the notion of a guaranteed salary is introduced, the level of which is linked to the minimum wage;
• Certain allowances are amended and supplemented (hardship allowance and health care workers’ premiums);
• The employer’s obligation to draw up a written schedule of leave within the meaning of Section 217(1) of the Labor Code is abolished.
• The rules on liability for wages within the meaning of Section 324a of the Labor Code, which only came into force on 1 January 2024, are amended.

In this context, it is essential to add that:

• the effectiveness of statutory rules of the regime under which an employee may schedule his/her own working hours at the workplace in agreement with the employer has been postponed until January 1st 2025;
• until 31 December 2024 (inclusive), the existing rules for determining the minimum wage will apply. Alongside this, the guaranteed wage rules apply until the same date.

If you need more details on particular changes, we are at your disposal.

The update was prepared by Associate Professor JUDr. Jakub Morávek, Ph. D., partner at Felix a spol.