COUNTRY

Written Agreements

An employment relationship is established by an employment contract between an employer and an employee. Such contracts must be made in writing. A written employment agreement must contain the following information:

• The employee's full name, employer's designation and seat if the employer is a legal entity, or the employer's full name and address if the employer is a natural person
• Information on job title and place of performance of work
• Information on the duration of annual leave or the method of determining it
• Information on notice periods
• Weekly working hours and schedule
• Information on salary and the remuneration method, the maturity of wage or salary, paydays and the place and method of payment
• Information on collective agreements regulating the employee's working conditions and the designation of the contracting parties to these agreements

Oral Agreements

An employment relationship is established by an employment contract between an employer and an employee. Such contracts must be made in writing. With no provisions or guidance on oral contracts, best practice in the industry is to frequently utilize or adapt written agreements.

Implied Agreements

An employment relationship is established by an employment contract between an employer and an employee. Such contracts must be made in writing. With no provisions or guidance on implied contracts, best practice in the industry is to frequently utilize or adapt written agreements.

The standard workweek is 40 hours. The length of a shift may not exceed 12 hours. After continuous work for 6 hours at the utmost, employees are entitled to a work break for a meal and rest lasting at least 30 minutes; an adolescent employee must be given a such break after a maximum of 4.5 hours of continuous work.

Employers are required to draw up a written weekly work schedule and inform employees of the schedule or its alteration at the latest 2 weeks before the beginning of the period over which the working hours are distributed.

• Restoration of the Czech Independence Day/New Year - January 1
• Good Friday (date subject to change, Friday before Easter Sunday) - March/April
• Easter Monday (date subject to change, Monday after Easter Sunday) - March/April
• Labor Day - May 1
• Victory in Europe Day - May 8
• Cyril and Methodius Day of Slavic Witnesses - July 5
• Jan Hus Day - July 6
• St. Wenceslas Day (Czech Statehood Day) - September 28
• Independent Czechoslovak State Day - October 28
• Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day - November 17
• Christmas Eve - December 24
• Christmas Day - December 25
• 2nd Christmas (St. Stephen's Day) - December 26

An employee who has performed work for the same employer for at least 60 days in one calendar year is entitled to leave for that calendar year, or a proportional amount of leave if employment did not last continuously for the entire calendar year.

The standard length of annual leave is 4 weeks. For government employees, annual leave is 5 weeks. Persons employed in education and academic employees of universities are entitled to 8 weeks of annual leave. Employees engaged in particularly arduous or hazardous work are entitled to supplementary leave.

The leave accumulates gradually during the year and any unused annual leave might roll over from year to year and in accordance with the organization's policies and procedures. When leave is interrupted due to military service, maternity leave, or paternity leave, annual leave is suspended and can be resumed after the interruption stops.

Sick employees are entitled to paid sick leave under the sickness insurance, with graduated support depending on the length of time away. The premium for sickness insurance is 2.7%, and the minimum sickness insurance premium is set at CZK 243 in 2025. Employers pay 2.1% and employees pay 0.6%.

During the first 3 days of illness, employees are not entitled to any compensation. From the 4th to the 14th day, the employer is required to provide wage compensation, which is 60% of the average wage of an employee. After the 14th day, employees are entitled to sickness benefits paid from the social security system. The amount of sick pay depends on the employee's salary and the number of days of temporary incapacity to work.

In the Czech Republic, a female employee's maternity leave begins at the sixth week before the expected childbirth (the earliest it can start is at 8 weeks before the expected delivery).

An employee is entitled to 28 weeks of maternity leave. If she gave birth to 2 or more children at the same time, she is eligible for 37 weeks of maternity leave.

The Czech Health Insurance Fund funds maternity benefits. An employee must participate in insurance for at least 270 calendar days over the last 2 years before they take maternity leave to receive financial assistance from the fund.

Per the amendments to the Sickness Insurance Act in the Czech Republic, paternity leave is a sickness insurance benefit. Insured fathers are entitled to 7 days of paid leave in connection with the care of a newborn child. The benefit is paid by the Czech Sickness Insurance Fund.

An employer must also grant unpaid parental leave upon a request from an employee. The entitlement to parental leave applies to the mother of a child upon the termination of her maternity leave and the father of a child from the delivery date until the child turns 3 years old.

Minimum Wage

For the year 2024, the minimum wage base rate is CZK 20,800 (Czech korunas) per month or CZK 124.40 per hour. For many employees in state sector, the guaranteed salary applies, which is higher than the minimum wage. These guaranteed wages are graded according to educational qualifications of employees.

The Labour Code requires that wages be paid after work is performed, at the latest in the calendar month following the month when the employee is entitled to them. On termination of employment, the employer must pay the employee on the next regular payday after the end of the employment.

Overtime, Holiday & Vacation Pay

Employees are entitled to overtime pay of regular wages plus at least 25% of average hourly earnings. They receive 50% of average hourly earnings when overtime work occurs on weekly days of uninterrupted rest. The labor law gives employees a right to extra compensatory time off in exchange for the hours worked overtime.

Night work (between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM) constitutes a premium of at least 10% of average earnings. The employer may only exceptionally order employees to work on non-working holidays. An employee who works on a holiday is entitled to time off corresponding to the time worked or wages plus bonus.

An employee is to be paid regular wages during their annual leave. The employer must provide reimbursement for costs the employee incurred as a result of the employer changing the time of leave or recalling the employee from leave.

Notice Period

Czech Labor Code states that the minimum notice for dismissal must be at least 2 months. It is same for both employers and employees and can be extended only by written agreement. Notice period takes effect on the first day of the calendar month following service of the notice and ends on the last day of the relevant calendar month. Notice of termination with respect to an employment relationship must be in writing and state the reason for termination.

For fixed-term employment, the contract expires at the end of the agreed period. However, the employer is required to provide notice of the termination at least 3 days before the event. If the employee continues working after the agreed period, and the employer is aware of the performance of the work, the employment relationship becomes indefinite.

Severance Benefits

The Labor Code requires an employer to make redundancy severance payments if the employer either dismisses or terminates employees by agreement due to the following reasons:

• If the employee becomes redundant due to the decision of the employer to change activities, increase efficiency, or restructure
• If the employer's undertaking relocates or closes down

Depending on the duration of the employment relationship, the amount of severance pay can be up to 3 times the employee's average monthly earnings.

Employees are entitled to receive severance pay in the amount of at least 12 times their average earnings:

• If they are terminated because they are not allowed to perform their current work due to an industrial injury, an occupational disease, or due to the threat of an occupational disease
• If their workplace has been subjected to a maximum permissible level of some harmful exposure

Pension

If a person reaches their retirement age after 2018, they must have had insurance for at least 35 years. People who reached their retirement age before 2018 need fewer years of coverage. A person's retirement age depends on the year of birth, their sex, and the number of children raised (for a woman).

The amount of the pension includes 2 parts: a basic assessment and a percentage assessment. The basic assessment is 10% of the relevant average wage and is CZK 4,660 (Czech korunas) per month as of 2025.

For each full year of pension insurance, until the person's right to retirement arises, 1.5% of the calculation basis is due. The calculation basis is determined by reducing the personal assessment basis, which is the monthly average of the retiree's annual assessment bases for the relevant period.

Dependents/Survivors Benefits

In the Czech Republic, there are provisions for pensions for survivors (spouses and children) of a deceased individual's family. The amount the surviving spouse receives has 2 parts: the basic assessment and the percentage assessment. A dependent child is entitled to a survivors pension if their deceased parent received retirement or a disability pension or died because of a work accident.

In case of an employee's death caused by an industrial injury or an occupational disease, the labor law requires the employer to:

• Pay for the employee's medical treatment
• Pay for the employee's funeral
• Pay for the costs of the survivors' maintenance
• Provide lump-sum indemnification to the survivors
• Provide compensation for material damage

The labor law provides clarification and minimum/maximum amounts for these factors. Employers must pay at least CZK 240,000 as indemnification to a deceased employee's spouse or child each. If the deceased employee's parents lived in the deceased's household, an employer must pay them at least CZK 240,000 together.

Invalidity Benefits

A disability or invalidity is defined as when a person's ability to work decreases at least 35% because of a long-term unfavorable state of health. There are three stages of disability based on the amount by which a person's ability to work decreases:

• Stage 1 Invalidity: Between 35% and 49%
• Stage 2 Invalidity: Between 50% and 69%
• Stage 3 Invalidity: At least 70%

The disability pension is made up of two components: a basic assessment and a percentage assessment. The basic assessment is the same for everyone and is set out in the Pension Insurance Act. As of 2025, the basic portion is CZK 4,660 (Czech korunas) per month. The percentage assessment depends on the length of the insurance period, the person's income earned before the disability, and the degree of disability. It is calculated as a percentage of each full year of the insurance period, depending on the degree of invalidity.

Employers are obliged to compensate employees for injuries caused by an accident at work, if the injury occurs during the performance of work tasks or in direct connection with it. Compensation is also due for work-related accidents that did not require the employee to be temporarily unable to work, or only to be unable to work for three calendar days.