The prerequisites of an employment agreement are governed by
Act no. 262/2006 Coll., Labour Code. The issue of employment agreements is dealt with by Part II of this Act (Section 33-39).
Employment agreements must always be concluded in writing, during which time the employer is required to give one counterpart of the agreement to the employee.
The employment agreement must always contain the type of work that the employee is to perform for the employer, the site or sites of performance of work and the date the employee starts work. If the employment agreement lacks any of these significant prerequisites then this causes the employment agreement to be invalid.
Type of work
The arranged type of work should be briefly and concisely expressed in the description of the work that the employee is to perform for the employer. It is up to both contracting parties to specify the arranged type of work to a sufficient degree. The employee is only required to perform work arranged in the employment contract and the employer is not entitled to demand that the employee perform any other activities than those arranged in the employment agreement.
Site of performance of work
The site of performance of work is the site at which the employee performs work for the employer according to the employment agreement. Definition of the site for performance of the work is chiefly important with regard to determination of the scope of the employer’s right to transfer the employer to work at a site different to that arranged as the site of performance of work and for determination of the origin and scope of the employee’s rights in the event of a business trip.
A regular workplace may be arranged in the employment agreement for the purpose of travel compensation. In the event that such a workplace is not arranged then the employee’s regular workplace is the site of performance of the work arranged in the employment agreement. However, if the site of performance of work is arranged in a broader scope than one municipality, the municipality in which the employee’s business trips start out from most frequently is considered his regular workplace.
Date employee starts work
The employment relationship originates on the day the employee starts work. If the employee does not start work on the arranged date, without being prevented from doing so by an obstacle to work, or if he does not inform the employer of such an obstacle within one week, then the employer may withdraw from the concluded employment agreement.
From the day he starts work the employer is required to give the employee work according to the employment agreement, pay him a wage or salary for the performed work, create conditions for performance of work tasks and adhere to any other conditions specified by legal regulations, the agreement or in-house regulations.
Additional provisions
Apart from the essential prerequisites that the agreement must contain and without which it is invalid, other terms that are of interest to the parties may also be determined in the agreement. However, such arranged terms must not be in conflict with the law, otherwise they are invalid.
The following prerequisites in particular are recommended:
Information duty
The employment agreement should (but does not have to) contain information about the rights and duties issuing from the employment relationship. If it does not contain such information then the employer is required to inform the employee of these rights and duties in writing within 1 month from origin of the employment relationship. The information must include:
- specific identification of the type of work and site of performance of the work,
- information about the length of holiday leave, potentially specification of the method of determining holiday leave,
- information about periods of notice,
- information about the weekly working hours and their schedule,
- information about the wage or salary and the method of rewarding the employee, the date for payment of the wage or salary,
- information about collective agreements determining work conditions.
Trial period
The employer and the employee may arrange a trial period in the employment agreement. The trial period must not be longer than 3 consecutive months following origin of the employment relationship and in the event that a trial period is arranged it cannot be subsequently extended.
A trial period cannot be arranged if the employment relationship has already originated. If the employee starts work and only signs the employment agreement after starting work, on the second day for instance, a trial period cannot be arranged in this agreement because the employment relationship originated on the day the employee started work. The period during which there are obstacles preventing the employee from performing the work for the employer (illness for instance) is not included in the trial period.
Duration of the employment relationship
The employment relationship may be arranged for a limited or unlimited period.