Legal Alert Changes to Labour Code
Moreover, in case any of the abovementioned changes takes place the employer is obliged to provide the necessary information and carry out consultations with the trade union organisations and workers and employees’ representatives when bound by law. The trade union organisations and workers and employees’ representatives are entitled to alert the Labour Inspection for non-observation of the Labour legislation in case the employer does not fulfill his information and consultation obligations.
II. Introducing Non-Discriminatory Measures Regarding Workers and Employees Employed under an Employment Contract for a Fixed term or for Working PartTime
General provisions have been adopted in order to guarantee equal rights and obligations for workers employed under an employment contract for a fixed term or for working part-time and for those employed under a contract for an indefinite period and working full-time. In addition to the interdiction of the unfavourable treatment of workers employed under an employment contract for a fixed term or for working part-time the law binds the employers to provide timely information about the vacant jobs and positions in order to provide an opportunity for the employees for full-time work under a contract for an indefinite term.
III. Elaborating the Provisions regarding the Additional Work, Night Work, OpenEnded Working Hours and Summarized Calculation of the Working Hours
(1) Additional Work
In accordance with the amendments the maximum duration of the work time under an additional work employment contract added to the work time under the main employment contract cannot exceed 40 hours per week for persons under the age of 18 and 48 hours per week for the other employees. Workers and employees over the age of 18 can work more than 48 hours per week only after submitting their express consent in writing and only for a period of up to 4 months. The employer is obliged to keep record for all workers and employees who work more than 48 hours per week. The records should be at the disposal of the Labour Inspection.
(2) Night Work
In order to determine a person as a worker or employer performing night work, the duration of the night work included in the regular work time or in the work shifts should now be at least 3 hours (instead of 4 hours as previously stipulated). A new regulation has been added binding the employer to transfer the employee to a suitable day work or to reassign them in case a healthcare institution determines that the employee’s health condition has deteriorated as a consequence of the night work performed.
(3) Open-Ended Working Hours
The provisions regarding open-ended working hours are set apart in a separate article. The employer is now obliged to approve until the end of January every calendar year of a list of all open-working hours positions. Moreover, the employees working under open-ended hours are entitled to an additional 15-minute rest after the elapse of the regular work time and to a total duration of the work time which does not affect the minimum rest between workdays and weekly rest.