Survival Kit V. Employment and Labour Regulations Working Hours

Working Hours

The working hours equal 40 hours per week and depend on the nature of the workplace and age of employees. It is stipulated that the length of working hours of employees

working underground in mining for coal, ores and industrial minerals, in mining construction and at mining workplaces of geological prospecting, equal 37.5 hours per week,
with a multi-shift or continuous work regime, 37.5 hours per week;
with a two-shift work regime, 38.75 hours per week,
for employees under 18 years of age, the duration of a shift on individual days may not exceed 8 hours and, in several basic employment relationships, the duration of the set weekly working hours may not exceed, in aggregate, 40 hours per week.

Shared Workspace

The employer has the option of concluding an agreement with two or more employees with shorter working hours and the same type of work, according to which employees will schedule working hours into shifts by mutual agreement in a shared workspace so that each of them fulfills the average weekly working time in a four-week balancing period.

Overtime Work

An employer may order an employee to work overtime only on the basis of serious operational reasons. Overtime work ordered from an employee may not exceed eight hours in individual weeks and 150 hours in a calendar year. Beyond the said scope, overtime work may only be performed exceptionally and only with consent of the employee. The maximum limit for overtime work which may not be exceeded equals 8 hours per week and a total of 416 hours per calendar year. After deducting the possible “ordered overtime work” of 150 hours per week, the remaining maximum equals 266 hours of overtime work, the performance of which must be agreed with the employee.

The number of hours of maximum permissible overtime work during a year does not include overtime work in respect of which the employee was provided with compensatory time off.

Annual Leave

The extent of annual leave equals at least 4 weeks in a calendar year. The employees of employers who do not perform business activities are entitled to a leave of five weeks. The employer is obliged to specify the time of taking leave based on the written schedule of taking leave with the prior consent of the relevant trade union and works council so that the employee can take the leave, as a rule, at once and by the end of the calendar year. Where leave is provided to an employee in several parts, at least one part must equal a minimum of two weeks unless the employee agrees with the employer otherwise. The employer is obliged to notify the employee of the specified time of taking leave at least 14 days in advance unless the employer agrees with the employee on shorter notice.

For the period of taking leave, an employee shall be entitled to compensation for salary in the amount of his/her average monthly earnings.

The employer is obliged to specify the taking of leave for the employee so that the leave is taken in the calendar year in which the entitlement to it arose unless the employer is prevented from doing so by impediments to work on the employee’s part or urgent operational reasons. If the employee could not take annual leave in the calendar year due to urgent operational reasons or because the employer failed to specify its taking, or due to impediments to work, the employer is obliged to specify it so that the leave is ended not later than by the end of the following calendar year. If the annual leave is not specified by the employer for the employee by 30 June of the next calendar year, the employee is also entitled to specify the time of taking the leave. The employee is obliged to notify the employer of the taking of leave at least 14 days in advance unless the employee agrees with the employer on a different period of notice. If the leave cannot be taken even by the end of the following calendar year because the employee has been declared temporarily incapable of work or due to maternity or parental leave, the employer is obliged to determine the time of taking this leave after these obstacles at work.

An employee shall be entitled to compensation for salary or pay for untaken leave only if his/her employment relationship ends.

Employment Contract, Commencement and Termination of Employment Salary and Salary Grades

Labour Office of the Czech Republic
Regional branch in Brno
Rosice contact office Tyršova 75
665 01 Rosice u Brna

JUDr. Daniela Kubišová
daniela.kubisova@bo.mpsv.cz