[Czech Republic] Amendment to the Labour Code from June 2025: Important Changes You Should Not Overlook

As of June 1, 2025, a comprehensive amendment to the Labour Code will come into force. It brings changes that will affect the daily practices of employers, HR departments, and employees themselves. The changes concern terminations, employment contracts, remuneration, and the rights of minors. This article provides an overview of the most important updates.

Agreements during parental leave

Employees who are on parental leave will newly be allowed to earn additional income with their employer by performing the same type of work as agreed in their employment contract. Until now, this was not allowed – the agreement (DPP/DPČ) always had to involve a different type of work. This change will bring greater flexibility for both employees and employers.

Change to the probationary period

The probationary period is being extended:

• For regular employees, it will be possible to agree on a probationary period of up to 4 months.
• For managerial employees, up to 8 months.
• The probationary period may also be extended during its course, but only up to these new maximum limits.
• The change does not apply to probationary periods agreed upon before the amendment enters into force – these are governed by the current regulation.

Extension of fixed-term employment and replacements

When replacing employees on maternity, parental or paternity leave, it will now be possible to conclude a fixed-term employment contract repeatedly without any limitation on the number of extensions. However, the total duration of such an employment relationship must not exceed 9 years.

New calculation of the notice period

The notice period will now start on the date the notice is delivered, not from the beginning of the following month. This means that the employment relationship can end on any day of the month, not just at the end of the month, as is the current practice. The notice period will then end on the date which numerically matches the date of delivery.

At the same time, the notice period is shortened to a minimum of 1 month in the following cases:

• if the employee does not meet the prerequisites for performing the job (including unsatisfactory results),
• in the event of serious breach of work duties or a breach of obligations during the first 14 days of illness (§ 301a),
• if the employee gives notice due to the transfer of rights and obligations under § 51a.

Changes in notice reasons due to medical issues, severance pay and lump-sum compensation

Under the current legislation, a 12-times severance pay is due if the employment ends due to the employee losing medical fitness as a result of an occupational injury or disease, or if the highest permissible exposure has been reached.

Under the new legislation, the reasons of loss of medical fitness for work will be merged, and the reason of reaching the highest permissible exposure will be separated from them.

According to current legislation, the loss of medical fitness is divided into:

• loss due to work injury, occupational disease or risk of such disease, and
• loss for other reasons, i.e. when the change in health is caused by factors unrelated to work.

According to the amendment, these two reasons will be merged into one.

For the reason of reaching the highest permissible exposure, the 12-times severance pay still applies (this remains unchanged).

However, in case of termination due to loss of medical fitness caused by a work injury, occupational disease, or risk of such disease, severance pay will no longer be granted. Instead, the employee will be entitled to a lump-sum compensation in the amount of 12 times the average monthly earnings, which will be exempt from health and social insurance contributions, but will still be subject to income tax (as the tax exemption does not apply).
The compensation will be paid by the employer, but it will be reimbursed from the employer’s liability insurance for work injuries and occupational diseases.

Termination due to breach of legal obligations

For a breach of legal obligations related to the performed work or for reasons allowing immediate termination, the employer may give notice or terminate the employment immediately within 3 months (previously 2 months) from the date they became aware of the reason (for breaches committed abroad, the deadline is 2 months after return from abroad) and no later than 15 months (previously 12 months) from the date the reason for termination arose.

Invalid termination of employment

Employees will no longer be at risk of missing the deadline to insist on continued employment in the event of an invalid dismissal or immediate termination. The condition of acting “without undue delay” will be removed from the law.

Moreover, the employee will be entitled not only to wage compensation, but also to vacation.

Employment of minors and new category introduced

It will now be possible to employ individuals:

• who are under 15 but have already turned 14, or
• who have turned 15 but have not yet completed compulsory schooling.

These individuals may only perform light work that is not harmful to their health, education, or moral development. Working time will be restricted as follows:

• maximum of 7 hours per day and 35 hours per week,
• minimum 14 hours of continuous daily rest within a 24-hour period,
• work is prohibited between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM,
• night work (between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM) is prohibited for all minor employees.

According to the Civil Code, this special group of minors may only work during the main school holidays.

All minor employees – including those aged 15 to 18 who have completed compulsory schooling – will newly be required to undergo occupational medical check-ups not only for standard employment contracts but also when working under DPP (Agreement to perform work) or DPČ (Agreement on work activity). Periodic check-ups for minors remain in effect.

Wage payment

The default method of wage payment will now be a bank transfer in Czech crowns to an account with a Czech bank, as provided by the employee.
Cash payments will only be allowed:

• if the employee explicitly requests it, or
• if the employee does not provide a bank account.

A major new development is the broader possibility of paying wages in foreign currency, under the following conditions:

• the employee and employer explicitly agree to it,
• the Czech National Bank announces an exchange rate for that currency,
• there is a so-called “foreign element” in the employee’s situation, i.e.:
  • the employee is a foreigner,
  • performs work abroad,
  • lives abroad permanently, or
  • covers living expenses abroad for themselves or their family.

The exchange rate used to calculate wages is the CNB exchange rate announced for the first working day of the month following the month when the wage entitlement arose, unless another date is agreed upon.

Vacation and immediate succession of employment relationships

Under the current regulation, if two employment contracts follow one another immediately, they are considered a single unit for the purpose of calculating vacation. This means, for example, that unused vacation cannot be paid out upon the end of the first contract if another one immediately follows it.

The amendment replaces the term “employment relationship” with “basic employment-law relationship”. What does this mean?

It now explicitly states that this rule applies not only to standard employment contracts, but also to other types of employment-law relationships, typically DPP and DPČ. According to the explanatory report, even transitions between employment relationship and DPP/DPČ will be considered a single unit.

Sharing wage information

Employers may no longer restrict employees from sharing information about their wage, including its amount and structure. Employees are now free to voluntarily share this information with anyone –  for example, colleagues or during negotiations for a new job offer.

However, the law does not prohibit employers from restricting the sharing of non-wage conditions, such as benefits.

Calculation of average earnings

The new method for calculating average earnings will:

• be based on the average weekly working time in the reference period, multiplied by the coefficient 4.348,
• if the working time changed during the reference period, a weighted average will be calculated based on the length of each working arrangement.

This change will prevent situations where a reduction of working hours in the last month before the end of employment would significantly lower unemployment benefit entitlements.

The law now also stipulates that if the average earnings are used after the employment ends (e.g., for Labour Office purposes), the most recently determined average earnings during employment will be used.

Electronic delivery of wage assessment

The amendment introduces a simplified regime for electronic delivery of wage assessments. For electronic delivery:

• prior written consent from the employee will not be required,
• the assessment can be delivered to an electronic address not explicitly specified by the employee – this can include a work email or the employer’s internal system,
• the delivery becomes effective only when the employee confirms receipt in writing.

If the employee does not confirm receipt within 15 days, the delivery is considered ineffective.

The employer is still required to sign the wage assessment using a recognized electronic signature, even under this simplified delivery regime.

The obligation to deliver the wage assessment (whether on paper or electronically) is now moved to a point before the commencement of work – that is, before the employee starts their first shift. This resolves the previous problem when the start date was scheduled for a weekend, which made compliance with delivery obligations more difficult.

Other changes worth noting

• Initial medical check-ups for Category I work are abolished. A check-up will only occur if requested by the employee or employer, or if required by other legislation (e.g., the decree on medical fitness for driving motor vehicles).
• Employers can no longer refuse to excuse an employee’s absence due to long-term caregiving leave. The obligation to excuse the absence applies always, regardless of operational reasons or their seriousness.
• Continuous daily rest may be shortened to 6 hours in extraordinary cases (e.g., accidents, natural disasters), provided that the following rest period is extended by the shortened amount.
• In the event of an employee’s death, their wage entitlements up to three times the average earnings will pass directly to the spouse, children, parents, and now also to a registered partner, if they lived in a joint household – these rights will not be subject to inheritance proceedings.
• Trade unions must, upon request from the employer, demonstrate that they meet the conditions for their existence.
• The group of employees for whom the employer cannot assign business trips without their consent has been expanded. The restriction will now apply to employees caring for a child under 9 years old (previously under 8 years old).