Czech Employment Law for Expats: The Labour Code, Notice & Severance (2026)

Czechia is one of the few Central European labour markets where the statutory text, not the contract, does most of the work. An employer cannot dismiss at will, cannot invent a ground, and cannot contract out of the protective floor. What the flexi-amendment of 2025 did was not deregulate that structure — it loosened the timing around it. Probation got longer, notice got faster, and the clock for acting on misconduct got more generous to employers. For an expat signing a Czech contract, and for the employer costing the hire, those timing changes are worth more than any headline rate.

The second thing to understand is that Czech employment law is only half the picture. The Labour Code sets the terms; the Sickness Insurance Act, the Employment Act and the Labour Inspection Act set the money and the penalties. A compliant contract with a non-compliant payroll report is still a CZK 50,000 problem. This article covers the Labour Code side — contract, pay floor, hours, leave, termination, representation and enforcement — and points to the payroll and immigration mechanics where they sit.

Every figure below is the 2026 value, drawn from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the State Labour Inspection Office and 2026 practitioner updates on the amendment.

What must a Czech employment contract say, and what happens if it says nothing?

The pracovní smlouva (employment contract) must be in writing and must contain exactly three mandatory elements under § 34 of the Labour Code: the type of work (druh práce), the place or places of work (místo výkonu práce), and the date work commences (den nástupu do práce). That is the whole list. Everything else — salary, hours, probation, notice — can live in the contract, in a separate wage assessment, in an internal regulation or in a collective agreement.

Leaving the rest out does not void the contract, but it does trigger a separate written information duty: the employer must inform the employee in writing of the remaining terms, including pay, working time, leave, notice arrangements and the social security institution receiving contributions. Miss the written form of the contract itself and the relationship still stands once work has started — what follows is an inspection finding, not a nullity.

Probation after the amendment

The probation period (zkušební doba, § 50) is where the amendment is most visible. The ceiling moved from three to four consecutive months for ordinary employees, and from six to eight for managerial employees. Two further changes matter in practice:

• Probation can now be extended by written amendment before it expires, up to the statutory ceiling. Previously a three-month probation agreed at signature was fixed for good.
• It still cannot exceed half the agreed duration of a fixed-term contract, and it still extends automatically by whole shifts missed through sickness, caregiving or unexcused absence. Partial shifts no longer trigger the extension.
• The new ceilings apply only to contracts concluded on or after 1 June 2025. An employee hired in May 2025 keeps the old three-month maximum.

Fixed-term work and the 3×3 rule

A fixed-term contract may not exceed three years, and it may be repeated at most twice from the date the first one started — three consecutive periods, nine years maximum. That is the rule practitioners call 3×3. The amendment carved out one exception: contracts covering an employee on maternity or parental leave can be repeated without limit, though each one is still capped at three years and the cumulative total at nine. Exceed the rule and the employee can notify the employer in writing and ask a court to declare the relationship indefinite.

Before any of this binds, the right to work has to exist. The sequencing of permit, contract and start date is covered in the Czech work visa and employee card route for expats; a contract whose start date precedes the permit is a problem for the employer, not the authority.

What is the legal pay floor in 2026, and how is it now set?

Since 2025 the Czech minimum wage is indexed rather than negotiated. The Labour Code fixes a formula: a forecast of the average wage in the national economy multiplied by a predetermined coefficient, on a published path toward 47% of the average wage in 2029. The 1 January 2026 increase to CZK 22,400 a month came out of that formula automatically, with no separate government decision — a meaningful change for employers who used to budget around an autumn political fight.

The guaranteed wage (zaručená mzda) was restructured at the same time. The eight commercial-sector bands were abolished; four bands keyed to education level survive for the state sector.

The minimum wage is load-bearing well beyond pay. It sets the DPP insurance threshold, the minimum health insurance base, the tax bonus eligibility floor at six times the monthly minimum (CZK 134,400 a year) and the pension contribution exemption ceiling at thirty-six times it (CZK 806,400 a year). The second income tax rate of 23% starts at thirty-six times the average monthly wage, CZK 1,762,812 a year in 2026. The gross-to-net arithmetic, the 33.8% employer contribution load and the 11.6% employee side are set out in the companion piece on payroll, tax and social security for expats in Czechia.

One more wage rule arrived with the amendment and is routinely missed: wage confidentiality clauses are now expressly prohibited. Any contractual term forbidding an employee from disclosing their own pay is invalid, existing clauses can be cancelled by unilateral employer declaration, and enforcement carries fines up to CZK 400,000. From 2026 the inspectorate is also checking pay transparency obligations — a starting salary or range in the job advertisement, and an employee right to request data on average earnings in comparable roles broken down by gender.

How do working time, overtime and leave actually work?

Standard weekly working time is 40 hours (§ 83), reduced to 38.75 for two-shift regimes and 37.5 for three-shift, continuous and underground work. A single shift may not exceed 12 hours. The schedule must be communicated in writing at least two weeks before the balancing period starts — one of the most commonly cited inspection findings, because employers treat rostering as informal.

• Ordered overtime: maximum 8 hours per week on average and 150 hours per calendar year.
• Agreed overtime: with the employee’s consent the 8-hour weekly average can be balanced over 26 weeks (208 hours), or up to 52 weeks (416 hours) where a collective agreement provides for it.
• Overtime pay: the wage earned plus a premium of at least 25% of average earnings, or time off in lieu where agreed. Senior managers can have overtime priced into salary, but only within the statutory ceilings.
• Premiums: night work at least 10% of average earnings; Saturday and Sunday work at least 10%. Public holiday work gives compensatory time off, or a premium of at least 100% where that is agreed instead.
• Rest: 11 uninterrupted hours in any 24, cut to 6 hours only during accidents, natural disasters and comparable emergencies under the amendment, with extended compensatory rest afterwards. A 30-minute break after six hours of continuous work, unpaid.

Leave is counted in hours, not days

Since the 2021 reform Czech annual leave accrues and is drawn in hours. The statutory minimum is 4 weeks, which at a 40-hour week is 160 hours; public sector employees get 5 weeks and academic staff 8. Full entitlement requires having worked 52 multiples of weekly working time in the calendar year; below four multiples, nothing accrues at all. Leave should be taken in the year it arises, with carry-over available at the employee’s request. Unused leave is compensated in money only on termination.

What happens when an employee is sick, pregnant or on parental leave?

Sick pay splits between employer and state. For the first 14 calendar days of temporary incapacity the employer pays wage compensation at roughly 60% of reduced average hourly earnings, and only for scheduled working days. From day 15 the Česká správa sociálního zabezpečení (ČSSZ, the Czech Social Security Administration) pays nemocenské for all calendar days, at a percentage of the reduced daily assessment base that steps up with the duration of the absence. There is no waiting period — the three-day unpaid window was abolished years ago, and a 2026 proposal to reinstate something like it has not been enacted.

Maternity benefit (peněžitá pomoc v materství) runs for 28 weeks for a single birth and 37 weeks for multiples, at roughly 70% of the reduced daily assessment base, and requires 270 days of sickness insurance in the preceding two years — a genuine trap for an expat who arrived eight months before giving birth. The second parent can draw paternity benefit for 2 weeks within six weeks of the birth. Parental allowance (rodičovský příspěvek) is a fixed pot of CZK 350,000 per child, or CZK 525,000 for multiples, drawn at a monthly rate the parent chooses.

Two amendment changes matter here. First, the employer must restore the employee to the same position through the child’s second birthday, not merely for the duration of maternity leave as before. Second, an employee on parental leave may now perform the same type of work for their own employer under a DPP or DPČ agreement — previously impossible, and still not permitted during maternity leave itself.

How can a Czech employer actually dismiss someone in 2026?

An employee may resign at any time without giving a reason. An employer may give notice only on a ground in the exhaustive list in § 52, and the ground must be described so specifically that it cannot be confused with another, and cannot be changed afterwards. The eight letters fall into four families:

• § 52(a) and (b) — closure and relocation: the employer, or the relevant part of it, is wound up or moves.
• § 52(c) — redundancy: the employee becomes surplus following a decision on organisational change, efficiency measures or a change of tasks or technical equipment. The decision has to exist and predate the notice.
• § 52(d) and (e) — health: long-term loss of capacity to perform the agreed work on medical assessment, or the maximum permissible exposure at the workplace having been reached. The amendment merged the previously separate occupational and non-occupational health grounds into one, which was the main source of litigation risk here.
• § 52(f) — qualifications and performance: failure to meet statutory prerequisites, or failure without employer fault to meet requirements for proper performance. Unsatisfactory work results require a written warning in the preceding twelve months.
• § 52(g) and (h) — conduct: grounds for immediate termination, a serious breach of duty, or repeated less-serious breaches after written warning; and a particularly gross breach of the sick-leave regime under § 301a.

Notice, severance and the new clock

The timing rule is the single most consequential change. Under § 51 the notice period now begins on the day the notice is delivered and ends on the day of the later month corresponding in number — notice delivered 15 June on a two-month period ends 15 August. Previously it began on the first day of the following calendar month, so a notice delivered on 2 June did not expire until 31 August. Parties may still agree in writing to a longer period, or to the old month-start mechanic, but never to a start before actual delivery.

Immediate termination (okamžité zrušení, § 55) is available only for a particularly gross breach of duty, or a final criminal conviction of the relevant severity. It takes effect on delivery, with no notice and no severance. Employers must act within three months of learning of the breach and fifteen months of its occurrence — both limits widened by the amendment, and both must be satisfied simultaneously. Employees have their own immediate-termination right, notably where wages go unpaid for more than 15 days past the due date.

Notice is barred during the protected period (§ 53): temporary incapacity, pregnancy, maternity leave, parental leave, and military service, with narrow carve-outs for closure. Collective redundancies — broadly, ten or more employees inside 30 days — require consultation and a written notification to the Labour Office, with a 30-day lead time before terminations take effect. Dismissing a trade union officer requires the union’s prior consent; dismissing anyone else requires consultation only.

Transfers of undertaking (§ 338 onward) move employment relationships automatically — no consent, no new offer. Both employers must inform unions, works councils or the affected employees no later than 30 days before the effective date. An employee informed properly who resigns before the transfer gets no severance; one not informed in time may resign within two months of the transfer on a 15-day notice period; and one who resigns within two months citing a substantial deterioration of working conditions can ask a court to award statutory severance under § 339a. The full employer-side checklist for all of this sits in the guide to employer compliance when hiring expats in Czechia.

Where do DPP and DPČ agreements fit, and when do they become a liability?

Czechia has two statutory alternatives to an employment contract, both called “agreements on work outside employment”. The dohoda o provedení práce (DPP, agreement to perform work) is capped at 300 hours per calendar year per employer. The dohoda o pracovní činnosti (DPČ, agreement on work activity) has no annual hour cap but is limited to an average of half the standard weekly hours.

These were once a genuinely light-touch instrument. They are not any more. Since 2024 they carry annual leave — available after four weeks of engagement and 80 hours worked, calculated on a notional 20-hour week, and payable in money if untaken at the end. The amendment then extended scheduling rules, break and rest provisions, and night, weekend and holiday premiums to them.

Cross the monthly threshold and social and health contributions apply to the whole income, not the excess. And after a cumulative 180 days within any 12 months, the worker can request conversion to a standard employment contract; the employer must answer in writing within 30 days, though it need not agree.

The real exposure is reclassification. A DPP used to disguise what is in substance dependent employment — the švarcsystém — is illegal employment, and illegal employment is the single largest fine in Czech labour law at up to CZK 10,000,000. Inspectors in 2026 are explicitly looking for it, alongside agency labour-hire arrangements. For an expat, there is a second cost: a DPP below the insurance threshold generates no sickness insurance days, which means no maternity benefit and no sick pay. The true all-in cost of structuring a role properly, including the employer contribution load, is modelled in the breakdown of the real cost of employing someone in Czechia.

What can the employee do, and what can the Labour Inspectorate do?

An employee who believes a termination was invalid has two months from the date employment was supposed to end to file in court — a short, strict limitation period, and the single most common reason otherwise strong claims fail. The amendment removed the old requirement to notify the employer of the invalidity claim without undue delay, so the claim can now be raised for the first time in the statement of claim.

If the dismissal is held invalid and the employee has notified willingness to continue working, the employer owes wage compensation for the whole period — now expressly including compensation for untaken leave. The court may moderate the award for the period beyond six months if the employee had other gainful activity, and the amendment extended that explicitly to self-employment, not just other employment.

Non-compete clauses have a price

A non-compete clause (konkurenční klauzule, § 310) is enforceable for a maximum of one year after termination, and only if the employer pays monetary compensation of at least one half of average monthly earnings for every month of the restriction. There is no unpaid non-compete in Czech law. If the employer misses a payment by more than 15 days, the employee can terminate the clause. A contractual penalty may be agreed, and paying it extinguishes the obligation. The clause must also be one the employee can fairly be required to accept — it has to protect information whose competitive use would genuinely harm the business, which is why blanket clauses across junior headcount tend not to survive scrutiny.

Representation and collective agreements

Only a trade union can conclude a collective agreement. Works councils and workplace health and safety representatives have information and consultation rights but no bargaining capacity and no veto. Since the amendment, a union must prove on request that it has at least three members at the employer, by notarial record, with the employer bearing the notarial cost. A company-level collective agreement can improve on the Labour Code but never undercut it. Higher-level collective agreements concluded at sector level can be extended by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs to employers who never signed them — construction, textiles and transport are the usual cases, and an incoming foreign employer that never checks the sector register can be bound by terms it has not read.

Enforcement

The Státní úřad inspekce práce (SÚIP, the State Labour Inspection Office) and its regional offices enforce the Labour Code. Equal treatment and non-discrimination obligations run across recruitment, pay and termination, and from 2026 the inspectorate’s stated priorities are pay transparency, correct calculation of wage premiums, equal treatment, and disguised employment.

One related 2026 change affects the exit side of the equation. From 1 January 2026 unemployment benefit pays 80% of previous average earnings for the first two months (three months from age 52), then 50%, then 40%, over 5 months for the under-52s, 8 months for ages 52 to 57 and 11 months above 57 — and the old reduction for voluntarily leaving a job has been abolished, except in cases of gross misconduct. That removes a long-standing reason employees refused mutual terminations and held out for formal notice instead. Expect more negotiated exits. The authoritative texts are published by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the State Labour Inspection Office.

Frequently Asked Questions