31.05.2021 10:50
The substantial amendment of the Labor Code, sometimes also referred to as the comprehensive amendment, has been debated already in late 2016, and medialized in early 2017, but failed to be adopted by the Parliament before the end of its mandate. However, it is to be expected that once the Chamber of Deputies is constituted after the general election, the bill will be put on the agenda again.
Even though the comprehensive amendment to the Labor Code was not adopted, the Labor Code itself was amended several times in 2017.
Early in the year, along with the amendment to the Civil Code, the provisions concerning immediate termination of employment contract, contract for work or agreement on performance of work by the legal guardian of a minor were abolished. Additionally, the same amendment restored the situation which had existed prior to the new Civil Code, i.e. before 31 December 2013, as a result of which employees do not have to meet the condition of compulsory school attendance completion when signing the employment contract, contract for work or agreement on performance of work. Currently therefore, as was the case before 1 January 2014, it is possible for a minor who is 15 years or older but has not completed compulsory schooling to sign an employment contract, contract for work or agreement on performance of work. However, he or she must not start work earlier than on the day when he or she would have completed compulsory school attendance.
Partial amendment concerns remuneration in case of wages or salary paid in connection with transnational provision of services.
As in the case of the Employment Act, explicit legal provisions on non-discrimination have been added to the Labor Code, namely to Section 16. The Labor Code is no longer relying exclusively on anti-discrimination legislation.
Finally, in connection with the efforts to address the troubling conditions in the area of agency employment, the Labor Code was amended in this regard as well by adding Section 307b. According to this Section, the labor agency and the client are obliged to ensure that an employee of the employment agency is not temporarily assigned to work for a client where he or she is simultaneously employed in regular employment or where he or she has worked in the same calendar month on a temporary assignment by another employment agency.
Author of the article: Jakub Morávek