Individual obstacles to work, whether on the part of the employer or the employee, and wage compensation for employees under an employment relationship have already been reported by my colleague Jakub Oliva in this article. The terms and conditions of the Antivirus programme have already been agreed and you can read about whether you are entitled to support from the programme, how much and how to apply here.
This article was written in 2020. If you are looking for up-to-date information on this topic, please do not hesitate to contact us at office@arws.cz or by phone on +420 245 007 740. We will be happy to advise you.
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One of the most complicated conditions of the Antivirus programme is compliance with labour law regulations, which will be checked by the State Labour Inspection Office. Apart from the fact that the condition is worded broadly and vaguely, it is impossible to know how strict the checks will be and what they will focus on. Therefore, it cannot be excluded that the inspections will also include compliance with labour law regulations in relation to employees working under agreements on work performed outside the employment relationship (so-called "contract workers").
Are there employees working for you under a performance or employment agreement? Do you know what they are entitled to?
The Labour Code is based on the principle that agreements for work performed outside the employment relationship are to be used by the employer only secondarily to fill part-time capacities where it is not possible to create a new job, for greater flexibility in case of variable demand, for seasonal work, etc. A significant advantage is that as an employer you are not obliged to allocate working time to the contract workers and therefore not to assign work. In addition, certain protective provisions are excluded for contract workers under Section 77 of the Labour Code.
Although it is up to you how you allocate working hours to the conciliator, for the purposes of providing compensation under agreements for work performed outside the employment relationship, you are obliged to determine the allocation of the employee's weekly working hours into shifts (either directly in the agreement or by internal regulation). This is not a scheduling of the time in which the employee should work for you, but a fictitious scheduling for the purposes of determining the amount of remuneration to be paid in the event of temporary incapacity for work or quarantine of the employee.
Employees working under agreements for work outside the employment relationship may be entitled to compensation in the event of temporary incapacity for work and quarantine. Other obstacles to work do not apply to contract workers under Section 77 of the Labour Code.
An employee who is a conciliator is entitled to remuneration compensation only if he/she meets the conditions for entitlement to sickness benefits pursuant to Act No. 187/2006 Coll., on Sickness Insurance, on the date of the obstacle to work:
If in a given month the employee meets the minimum income requirement and the employee suffers a temporary incapacity for work or quarantine, you must pay him or her 60% of the average earnings for the duration of the incapacity for work, up to a maximum of 14 days, in accordance with the notional weekly working time in shifts (i.e. for the days that are considered working days according to this schedule). It should also be emphasized here that the compensation you pay to the conciliator because of the impediments to work incurred is not covered by the Antivirus compensation.
If the employee does not earn the qualifying earnings in the month in which the work stoppage occurred, the employee is not entitled to wage replacement.
Provided that in a calendar month the employee does not achieve the relevant income and the state is not the payer of the insurance premium[1], the employee is considered to have no taxable income for the purposes of Act No. 48/1997 Coll., on public health insurance. This means that you are not obliged to make advance payments of public health insurance premiums on his/her behalf .
However, the employee must pay the advance payment of public health insurance premiums himself. The current minimum amount of this payment is CZK 1,971[2]. Employees must pay the advance payments for health insurance for each month in which they have not earned the relevant income by the 8th day of the following month.
In this connection, it should also be emphasised that, unlike self-employed persons , persons without taxable income were not exempted from compulsory contributions on the basis of Acts No 134/2020 and 136/2020 adopted in the state of emergency.
In the event that the contracted workers do not achieve the decisive income in the calendar year, you do not have to pay social insurance on their behalf.
Employees are not obliged to pay social insurance either. The payment of social security contributions is voluntary for persons without employment and without taxable income. The minimum monthly voluntary pension insurance contribution is CZK 2,439. Months in which no pension contributions are paid are not counted towards the specified periods of insurance necessary to qualify for an old-age pension[3].
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[1] The most common situations in which the state is the payer include: jobseekers on the register of the employment office, students up to 26 years of age, women on maternity and parental leave and persons receiving maternity allowance, persons who personally and properly care for at least one child up to seven years of age or at least two children up to 15 years of age all day long, etc.
[2] Status as of 06.04.2020.
[3] The general period of insurance is 35 years.