Termination from work without giving a reason is the most explosive topic among the considered amendments to the Labor Code. For the people, this is a topic they do not want to discuss at all, and the minister Marian Jurečka even expressed on Czech television that it was a question of his party remaining in the coalition.
According to the chairman of the Union of Industry and Transport Jan Rafaj it is not yet clear how the government will deal with the dismissal without giving a reason. “For us, it’s too much politics and drama in front of people. It’s like a divorce. When two entities don’t want to be together, it’s all about money and it’s incredibly stressful to have to go through lengthy proceedings. People are already leaving today based on an agreement, and money is dealt with in that,” said SZ Byznys after the tripartite meeting, where the Labor Code was one of the points.
The union strongly opposes the proposal for redundancies, which appeared on the list of recommended measures National Economic Council of the Government (NERVE). According to the unions, it can be discriminatory and increases insecurity on the part of employees who could be fired for personal reasons – for example, because of political opinions, sexual orientation or planned family formation.
The amendment to the Labor Code under consideration contains a number of other changes, but the tripartite did not agree on the resulting form of the so-called “flexible amendment”. Other proposed changes relate to dismissals, probationary periods and flexibility of work on parental and maternity leave.
For example, the government is considering a proposal that would allow notice to run from the moment of delivery, rather than from the first day of the following month. There is a reduction in the notice period to one month in case of violation of work discipline. And also the extension of the probationary period from 3 to 4 months for ordinary workers and from 6 to 8 months for executives. The unions don’t like that. Employers, however, welcome it, claiming that during the current period, especially in the case of managers, they do not need to know the qualities of the employee. The possibility of submitting notices digitally is also being discussed.
The amendment also aims to improve the position of parents who, for example, after returning from parental leave with a child under two years of age, would be guaranteed to return to the same position where they worked. Until now, this protection was only for maternity leave. It should also be possible for the person who earns extra money on parental leave or DPČ to perform work of a similar nature to that which he has in the contract with his employer.
According to Rafaj, however, the tripartite trade unions reject the amendment to the Code as a whole and do not agree with any of the proposed changes.
In January, NERV presented a total of 37 steps to support the Czech economy. Government representatives said today that they will present a list of measures they want to implement at the next tripartite meeting on May 6.
The economic advisory body of the government recommended, for example, education reform, investment in science and research, ensuring the availability of kindergartens for higher employment of parents, unification of small municipalities, controlled recruitment of workers from abroad, introduction of a regulated cannabis market or modernization of the labor code. The chairman of the Association of Independent Trade Unions (ASO) Bohumír Dufek told journalists that there could be about ten selected steps.
At the same time, a new economic strategy for the Czech Republic is being prepared, which will be ready by autumn and should determine the country’s economic direction in the coming years. Minister of Industry and Trade Zdeněk Síkela (STAN) intends to publish the document at the autumn engineering fair in Brno.
“There are currently 282 national strategies, 61 European strategies and 283 regional strategies in force in the Czech Republic. These are such huge numbers that it is necessary to reconcile them. In this case, it is chaos that no one is able to contain. We think that the economic strategy should cover this,” said Josef Středula, head of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKOS).
