Abstract
Czech collective employment law remains to be quite far from the Western European tradition. Once rich and flourishing, the Czech collective employment law world had been profoundly changed during the Nazi and mainly Communist Era, where the role assigned to collective agreements was diminished to a soft plan implementing directives of the State. After our return to democracy, it is obvious that we had to adopt not only new democratic regulations but also to re-build informal structures. Because of suppressed role of trade unions, poor level of social dialogue and a number of statutory regulations, Czech collective agreements are cursed to play only a secondary role even in the near future.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Home work is the practice of performing all duties related to employment at the employee’s home.
- 2.
- 3.
In Germany, the issue is known as “Arbeiterfrage”—Problem of Labourer.
- 4.
Charta of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms was adopted as an appendix of statute No. 23/1991 Collection. Regarding the extraordinary situation during 1992, when the Charta’s predecessor of the Czech Republic was abolished, the Charta was declared again on 16 December 1992 as a component of the Czech constitutional order (Manifestation No. 2/1993 Coll.). The Charta was amended by Act No. 162/1998 Coll.
- 5.
The law in the Czech Republic does not allow for a membership of members of armed forces in political parties, political movements and trade union organisations. As far as members of armed forces are concerned, the prohibition on being a member of a trade union organisation applies to members of the security forces.
- 6.
See Supreme Court decision on 14th November 2002, file number 21 Cdo 2104/2001, published in Sb.NS 2003, No. 7–8, p. 540.
- 7.
Trade unions are private-law associations. In accordance with the law, three members can establish a trade union organisation or employer organisation. The legislation does not set forth other criteria for association, not even a criterion of representativity. Regrettably, the day-to-day application of the new Czech Civil Code has revealed a number of shortcomings practitioners find difficult to face. The most serious obstacles in the Civil Code’s bright future in labour law seem to be doubts connected with trade unions’ legal personality. The Civil Code spells out that a trade union is a society (in Czech “spolek”). But trade unions find it excruciating. The main reason given for their level of contempt for the new regulations on societies is a significant restriction of their room for manoeuvre, which they even consider to be violating respective ILO conventions. In fact, the Civil Code and supplementary legislation have brought many duties for societies. But the relevant Civil Code’s regulations shall apply only if it is appropriate in regard to international obligations of the Czech Republic. Nevertheless, it is true that the clear border line between applicable and non-applicable regulations will be established by case law in the next 15 odd years, which makes not only trade unions’ legal position in collective bargaining and other negotiations highly uncertain.
- 8.
The Labour Code envisions giving trade unions the right to prior consultations on proposals of labour legislation. See Section 320 of the Labour Code.
- 9.
As an example, we can mention ČEZ a.s. with 36 trade unions.
- 10.
Works councils can mediate in relations between employers and employees and are called upon to enforce the right of employees to information and consultation. They have at least 3 members and at most 15 members.
- 11.
These rules enabled the Czech Republic to ratify the ILO Workers’ Representatives Convention, 1971 (No. 135), in October 2000.
- 12.
In spite of this, there are cases where employers in certain companies try to exert influence on trade union bodies, including by means of offering certain benefits to trade union representatives.
- 13.
This is the unique protection guaranteed by Czech Labour Code; no other employee enjoys the same level of legal protection against dismissals.
- 14.
As derived by Supreme Court decision docket file No. 21 Cdo 398/2016.
- 15.
Cf. Supreme Court decision docket file No. 21 Cdo 1037/2009.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
Supreme Court decision of 18 January 2017, docket file No. 21 Cdo 5763/2015. Cf. Constitutional Court decision of 11 June 2003, file No. Pl. ÚS 40/02 or Highest Court in Prague decision of 22 November 1994 file No. 6 Cdo 94/94.
- 19.
Supreme Administrative court decision file no. 9 As 329/2016 – 42.
- 20.
The agreements are not distinguished from each other by their content but only by the fact that the higher-level agreement may be concluded only by an employers’ organisation and a trade unions’ organisation (for more see the chapter dealing with collective agreements).
- 21.
Cf. Kottnauer et al. (2002), p. 202.
- 22.
Cf. Article III (4) of the collective agreement concluded by the Czech government in 2016.
- 23.
Šubrt (2017), p. 51.
- 24.
Since 1 January 2007.
- 25.
See Pichrt and Štefko (2015), marg. no. 680.
- 26.
The Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic created only a narrow exception in the decision published under No. 116/2008 Coll., marg. no. 258 et seq.
- 27.
Section 23 (I) in fine of the Labour Code.
- 28.
According to Section 7 of the Collective Bargaining Act, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs may issue a ruling that a higher-level agreement starts to be also binding for employers who are not members of the employers’ organisation that concluded that agreement. A higher-level agreement may only be extended to employers with similar activities, and who are not committed to another higher-level agreement.
- 29.
The identification of those who can sit at the bargaining table is a crucial factor in concluding collective agreements. For higher-level agreements, it is frequent that the employees’ representatives face the problematic absence of competent bodies for collective bargaining within the employers’ organisations. That concerns instances where employers’ organisations have not been established in accordance with law, or in case they are (or they plead to be) unable to conduct collective bargaining because their articles of association do not give authorisation for it (or that authorisation is restricted to certain members of the organisation and has to be renewed on a case by case basis, etc.).
- 30.
Section 25 Par. 4 of the Labour Code.
- 31.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms was adopted as an appendix of statute No. 23/1991 Collection. After the extraordinary situation of 1992, when the Charter’s predecessor was abolished, the Charter was re-established on 16 December 1992 as a component of the Czech constitutional order (Manifestation No. 2/1993 Coll.).
- 32.
The provisions concerning the freedom of contract were set forth in Sections 2 and 363 of the Labour Code of 2006 (Act no. 262/2006 Coll. as amended by decision 116/2008 Coll.).
- 33.
Morávek in Pitrova (2015), p. 293.
- 34.
Set forth in Section 4a Par. 3 of the Labour Code.
- 35.
Bělina et al. (2015), see commentary to Section 18.
- 36.
There are no official statistics for the whole country. The last nationwide statistics published by trade unions described union density as 17% in 2009.
- 37.
Data provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Data are available at http://www.mpsv.cz/cs/3360 citation 15 March 2018.
- 38.
The Labour Code envisions giving trade unions the right to prior consultations on proposals of labour legislation. See Section 320 of the Labour Code.
- 39.
Employers who are not bound by any collective agreement may have taken advantage of that fact (e.g. less remuneration).
- 40.
Regulations on extending higher-level agreements have been made more concrete by the specific measure agreed on between the government and social partners in the tripartite Council of Economic and Social Agreement (“Procedure on extending higher-level collective agreements”). According to this procedure a commission, which works at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs as an advisory body to the Minister, negotiates the extension of higher-level agreements. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs must review the content of higher-level agreements for compliance with the labour law regulations prior to extending them, and must publish its notice about extending the binding force of a higher-level agreement in the Collection of the Law.
- 41.
Cf. Tomeš and Tkáč (1993), p. 143 et seq.
- 42.
Since 1 January 2007.
- 43.
See Pichrt and Štefko (2015), marg. no. 680.
- 44.
A list of higher-rank collective agreements is available here https://www.mpsv.cz/cs/3619, citation 30 March 2018.
- 45.
Cf. Bagdonaitė et al. (2016), p. 17.
References
Bagdonaitė A, Blažienė I, Petrylaitė D, Świątkowski AM (2016) The role of social dialogue and collective agreements in building the European social model in the lawyers quarterly. Int J Legal Res 6(2):65–81
Bělina M, Drápal L et al (2015) Zákoník práce. Komentář [The labour code: commentary]. C.H. Beck, Prague
Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic decision on 11 June 2003, docket file No. Pl. ÚS 40/02
Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic judgment on 12 March 2008, docket file No. PL US 83/ publish under No. 116/2008 Coll
Halbach G, Paland N, Schwedes R, Wlotzke O (1994) Labour law: an overview. Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
Highest Court in Prague decision on 22 November 1994, docket file No. 6 Cdo 94/94
Kottnauer A, Úlehlová H, Přib J (2002) Civil Service Act (In Czech Služební zákon). Sagit, Ostrava
Lazar J and others (2006) Civil law substantive (In Czech Občanské právo hmotné). Iura Edition, Bratislava, p 38
Morávek in Pitrova L (ed) (2015) Rule of law and mechanisms of its protection Czech perspective. RWW, Prague
Pichrt J, Štefko M (2015) Labour law and industrial relations – Czech Republic, IEL, 2nd edn. Kluwer Law International, The Netherlands
Šubrt B (2017) The high-rank collective agreement in Práce a mzda 6:51
Supreme Court of the Czech Republic decision on 14th November 2002, file number 21 Cdo 2104/2001, published in Sb.NS 2003, No. 7–8
Supreme Court of the Czech Republic decision on 16 December 2010, docket file No. 21 Cdo 1037/2009
Supreme Court of the Czech Republic decision on 18 January 2017, docket file No. 21 Cdo 5763/2015
Supreme Court of the Czech Republic decision on 6 March 2017, docket file No. 21 Cdo 398/2016
Tkáč V (2004) Trade Unions, employers and works’ councils (In Czech Odbory, zamestnávatelia, zamestnanecké rady). PressPrint, Košice
Tomeš I, Tkáč V (1993) Collective bargaining and collective agreements (In Czech Kolektivní vyjednávání a kolektivní smlouvy). Prospectum, Prague
Zoulík F (1994) Recodification of civil law in the Czech Republic (In Czech Problematika rekodifikace soukromého práva v České republice). Bulletin advokacie 10:10 et seq
Acknowledgement
This article was written thanks to financial support given to Faculty of Law, Charles University in the grant id. UNCE/HUM/038.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pichrt, J., Štefko, M. (2019). Czech Republic. In: Liukkunen, U. (eds) Collective Bargaining in Labour Law Regimes. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16977-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16977-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16976-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16977-0
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)