MRI Worldwide of Prague

Before you seek to conduct or establish business within the Czech Republic, there are some important facts with which you should first familiarize yourself. Although we are not legal advisors, we at MRI Worldwide - Prague s.r.o. have the local experience to help as your local guide with referrals to legal services as well as information of policies and legislation. 

Here is some general information:

In many other countries such as in the United States any discussion of salary or compensation is discussed in terms of a cumulative year-end amount, usually referencing a Form W-2. From that, people generally speak of their earnings as a yearly total or perhaps as a per hourly rate. For example, in the USA or elsewhere you might speak in terms of $70,000.00 per year when discussing compensation.

In the Czech Republic it is described in terms of a monthly amount, for example, during a discussion of salary the number 70.000,00 CZK would describe the salary paid on a per-monthly basis. If you are not aware of this, the same number can mean a very different yearly sum.

Bonuses are discussed in the same common format here as in most other markets.

Employee Vacation Time

From the starting date of employment workers are eligible for 4 weeks of vacation per-year according to Czech Labor Law.

Labor Laws and Discrimination

Similar to other EU countries and elsewhere in the world, it is forbidden to discriminate for the following:

Gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnic origin, nationality, citizenship, social origin, language, health condition, age, faith or religion, marital or family status or family connected duties, political or other opinions, membership in political parties, membership in unions or other employee organizations.

Maternity leave 

- starts approximately 6 to 8 weeks before the expected delivery date and lasts for 28 weeks (one newborn) or up to 37 weeks (twins and more or if the mother is a single parent)

- for this period of time the mother receives financial support – maternity support and it is 69 % of her previous average daily income paid by employer (applies only to companies with more than 25 employees) or paid by social support authorities (if the company has less than 25 employees)

Parental leave 

 - every employer must provide the parental leave for a mother or a father up to 3 years of the child’s age.

- during this period the parent is not entitled to a refund of wages, but he or she are entitled to receive the parental support paid by social support authorities (government institution)

Additional Leave information  

 - employer is obligated to keep the same title and position in the company for the mother for the period of maternity leave and that is from 28 up to 37 weeks,

after that period and if a woman goes to the parental leave the employer is obligated to keep for her “a position” in the company with relevance to her experience and education (up to 3 years of the child’s age).

If then the employer does not have such position and can verify this fact, then the employer can cancel the employment contract with the employee for the reason of redundancy and must pay the employee compensation money.

- during woman’s pregnancy and during her maternity and parental leave (up to 3 years of the child’s age) it is illegal for employer to terminate the employment contract with her, it is allowed only for the organizational reasons (like the end of company’s activities, relocation of the company etc.)

- pregnant women and women with a baby younger than one year cannot be required to work overtime

Company Legal Entities

The most common are:

s.r.o. – Společnost s ručeným omezením – Limited Liability Company/Limited Company

a.s. – Akciová společnost – Joint-stock Company (UK)/Corporation (US)

v.o.s. – Veřejná obchodní společnost – Public Limited Company/Public Company

k.s. – Komanditní společnost – Limited Partnership/Special Limited Partnership

For more information, MRI Worldwide Prague can recommend a lawyer who can consult futher on this subject.

Employment Contracts

Contracts should be written in Czech language and must be written according to Czech legal precedent. If, for example, you have standard contracts in your main language and in accordance of your local legal terms, duplicates will need to be drafted alongside in accordance with Czech labour law to be valid.

For more information please go to the Official Website of the Czech Republic:

http://www.czech.cz/prace_studium/folder.aspx?id=1164-Employment&language=en-US

                                              This page is periodically updated