Working conditions under scrutiny – deputies pass ‘Flexinovela’
At the beginning of March, the chamber of deputies approved a closely watched amendment to the Labour Code, the ‘Flexinovela’, which will introduce significant changes. It will now be discussed by the senate and then submitted to the president for signature. It is expected to enter into force at the beginning of June. Despite its title, apart from bringing more flexibility, the amendment also imposes new obligations for employers.
Most of the central points of the amendment already reported on here passed the third reading without major complications. Notice periods shall thus change and run from the date of delivery of a notice, rather than from the beginning of the following month. Also, a shorter notice period of one month is to apply in cases of punitive terminations of employment. The maximum trial period shall also be extended, to four months for common employees and eight months for senior staff, and it will be possible to extend it additionally. The rules for substitutes for employees on maternity or parental leave, additional earnings during parental leave, and returns to work after the end of parental leave will also change.
During the debate in the chamber of deputies, several amending proposals were submitted and approved:
The key change is the prohibition to include a confidentiality obligation regarding the structure and amount of their wage in an employee’s contract. This is currently common practice with many employers. Contracting such a clause will also be regarded as an offence under the Labour Inspection Act, and inspectorates will be able to impose fines of up to CZK 400,000. This will not only apply to newly concluded contracts but also to those concluded before the law entered into force – employers should therefore remove these clauses from their employment contracts as soon as possible.
On the other hand, this obligation will not affect any contracted obligation of an employee to maintain confidentiality regarding the structure, amount and method of remuneration of other employees.
The amendment also introduces a health programme, i.e., a set of measures designed to enable employers to make better use of health prevention tools and ensure better employee health. The programme will be voluntary for both the employer and the employee. The specific framework and instruments of this programme are hard to predict – they are to be specified by the Ministry of Health in a decree but the proposed wording of the decree has not yet been submitted.
Among rejected amending proposals were the termination by notice without stating grounds, and the requirement to maintain the current length of trial periods. Neither of these proposals found sufficient support in the chamber of deputies.
Although the amendment was significantly curtailed during the long legislative process, it still brings significant changes that will affect the working environment. In many respects, it is the right step towards modernising Czech labour law. One can only hope that the trend towards greater flexibility in employment regulation will continue.