Czech Republic
JMHZ - Mandatory pre-start registration of employees
Impact date: 1 July 2026 Since 1 July 2026, every employee must now be entered in the JMHZ employee register before performing any work. Full registration may be completed for any employee. If data is incomplete, the simplified PREZEC process may be used (but only for employees who are Czech citizens). The data can be filed no earlier than eight days before the expected start date and must be completed within eight days after the actual start date. Employers and any payroll office must be registered no earlier than 15 days and no later than two working days before the first employee starts employment. A payroll office established subsequently must be registered within eight days of its establishment.
Employer implications/action needed Employers should make registration a mandatory pre-start step before any work is undertaken, or any induction or training forming part of the employment. Employers should also ensure that recruitment, payroll and site teams are aligned, collect the required data in advance and use the correct process for either full registration or PREZEC. Clear procedures should be put in place for completing registrations (and cancelling records where the individual does not start work) and local managers should be trained to ensure that no individual starts work before the registration process has been completed.
Employer risk Allowing an employee to start work before registration may constitute unreported work and may lead to labor inspectorate action and administrative penalties. Submitting incorrect employee registration data or failing to register the employer or a payroll office within the applicable deadline, may also result in administrative penalties.
Link Act No. 323/2025
Reduction in the minimum social security base for self-employed persons
Impact date: 1 July 2026 A reduced minimum monthly assessment base (reduced from 40% to 35% of the average wage) now applies to self-employed persons whose self-employment is their main activity. As a result, the standard minimum monthly pension insurance advance for a self-employed person whose self-employment is their main activity is now CZK 5,005 instead of CZK 5,720. Eligible differences relating to the first half of 2026 may be refunded on request or will otherwise be reflected in the annual contribution reconciliation.
Employer implications/action needed Employers should review any Czech contractor guidance and prepare HR and procurement teams to respond to questions about the reduced advance and the refund or reconciliation of overpayments. This change does not affect the distinction between genuine self-employment and dependent work, which should continue to be assessed separately.
Employer risk As social security contributions are paid by self-employed individuals, direct exposure for employers is limited. The main practical risk is providing outdated or inaccurate information. Existing risks relating to disguised employment and worker misclassification remain unchanged.
Link Act No. 90/2026
Enhanced maternity benefit protection for subsequent children
Impact date: 1 July 2026 New rules make it easier for some women to qualify for maternity where entitlement to maternity benefit for a subsequent child arises within four years of the birth of the previous child. Where a woman is entitled to maternity benefit for a subsequent child, the daily assessment base used for the immediately preceding maternity benefit is used if it is higher than the newly calculated daily assessment base and the applicable statutory conditions are met, helping to protect benefit levels where earnings have fallen or employment circumstances have changed.
The reform also introduces a new route to entitlement for certain women who would otherwise not qualify because they are no longer covered by sickness insurance or do not satisfy the usual insurance-period requirement when the subsequent maternity benefit begins. This applies where the woman was entitled to the immediately preceding maternity benefit under the standard eligibility rules and accumulated at least 540 calendar days of sickness insurance participation during the four years preceding the start of that earlier maternity benefit.
Employer implications/action needed Employers should update maternity and parental rights guidance and payroll procedures and ensure that applications and supporting employment or earnings data are forwarded promptly to the Czech Social Security Administration where applicable.
Employer risk The benefit is administered by the Czech Social Security Administration, so direct financial exposure for employers is limited. However, delayed or incomplete employer documentation may postpone payment and result in employee complaints or employee relations issues.
Link Act No. 300/2025
Early retirement pension and compensation following invalid termination
Impact date: 1 July 2026, publicly announced on 8 July 2026 The Constitutional Court held that applying for and receiving an early retirement pension does not automatically show that an employee is unwilling, unable or unprepared to continue working. When deciding compensation under Section 69 of the Labour Code, the court must assess the employee’s actual intentions, reason for applying for the position and individual circumstances. The employee must still have been ready, willing and able to perform the agreed work. The Court annulled Supreme Court decision 21 Cdo 3223/2024, which had applied an automatic exclusion.
Employer implications/action needed Employers involved in invalid termination disputes should not treat the date on which an early retirement pension was awarded as an automatic cut-off for compensation. They should preserve evidence concerning the employee’s actual willingness and ability to return, including correspondence, responses to offers of reinstatement and any other employment activities. Where appropriate, employers should make a clear, documented offer allowing the employee to resume the agreed work. For compensation periods exceeding six months, employers may also request a reduction under Section 69(2) of the Labour code, supported by evidence of concrete and reasonably comparable employment opportunities.
Employer risk Employers may face increased back-pay exposure, including interest and litigation costs, if they relied solely on the employee’s early retirement pension to deny compensation. Exposure may be significant in long-term invalid termination disputes. The pension remains relevant as one factor, but it cannot replace an individual assessment of the employee’s circumstances.
Incorrect notice period does not invalidate termination notice
Impact date: 14 July 2026 The Supreme Court confirmed that stating an incorrect notice-period length does not, by itself, invalidate a termination notice. The notice period is a statutory consequence of the notice and need not be stated at all. Employment therefore ends upon expiry of the correct statutory or contractually agreed notice period, irrespective of the incorrect information in the notice. This should also apply where the stated termination date merely reflects the incorrectly calculated notice period.
Employer implications/action needed Employers should calculate and communicate the correct termination date and align payroll, offboarding and deregistration accordingly. Any identified error should be clarified promptly in writing, although an incorrect statement of the notice-period length does not in itself require a new termination notice.
Employer risk The notice generally remains valid, but relying on the incorrect date may result in unpaid salary claims, incorrect deregistration, premature termination of benefits and employment disputes.
Government proposal to link hazardous work reporting to JMHZ
Impact date: Proposed 1 January 2027. On 13 July 2026, the government approved a draft amendment to the Public Health Protection Act and the JMHZ Act concerning the reporting and use of data relating to hazardous work. The proposal is intended to improve data sharing between public authorities and create a more comprehensive record of employees exposed to workplace health risks.
Under the proposal, employers would report selected data from their hazardous work records through the JMHZ system, including data on the number of shifts worked in hazardous work. The reported information would be made available to the Ministry of Health and regional public health authorities for public health administration and supervisory purposes and could also support analysis of hazardous occupations.
The proposal has not yet been enacted, and its detailed scope, reporting requirements and effective date may change during the legislative process.
Employer implications/action needed Employers with employees performing hazardous work should review the accuracy of their work-risk classifications and ensure that HR, payroll and occupational health records are consistent. Businesses should monitor the progress of the legislation and any technical guidance issued on new JMHZ reporting requirements.
Employer risk No new obligations under the proposal apply at this stage, and existing hazardous-work record-keeping obligations continue to apply. Once enacted, inaccurate hazardous work data may lead to reporting and public health compliance issues, particularly for employers with a significant number of employees performing hazardous or physically demanding work.
Pay transparency
Impact date: Proposed 1 January 2027 for the recruitment and remuneration-system rules; 1 January 2028 for employee information rights and the first reporting cycle for employers with at least 150 employees; and 1 January 2031 for reporting by employers with 100-149 employees and selected agency-work rules. On 31 August 2026, the government approved, with changes, a draft amendment to the Labour Code and related legislation implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The proposal has not yet been enacted and may change during the legislative process. The proposal would prohibit employers from actively seeking information about candidates' current or previous remuneration, while allowing candidates to volunteer it and employers to ask about pay expectations. Before an employment relationship is concluded, candidates would have to be informed of the minimum remuneration and related monetary or non-monetary benefits. The rules would also apply to DPP and DPČ agreements. Employers would also have to maintain a written remuneration system, grouping work by value and setting objective, non-discriminatory pay rules, together with a documented framework for other monetary and non-monetary benefits. Employees could request their own remuneration and average remuneration, broken down by sex, for the relevant work group; employers would have two months to respond and would inform employees of this right annually. Gender pay-gap reporting would apply to companies with at least 100 employees: annually for employers with at least 250 employees and every three years for those with 100-249. It would begin in 2028 for employers with at least 150 employees and in 2031 for those with 100-149. An unexplained gender pay gap of at least 5% not remedied within six months could trigger a detailed pay assessment. The proposal primarily transposes the Directive, but certain requirements may amount to gold plating. In particular, the mandatory formal documentation of remuneration and benefit systems for all employers appears more prescriptive than the Directive's minimum requirements. The final position should be reassessed once the consolidated wording approved by the government with changes is published.
Employer implications/action needed Although the legislation is not yet in force, employers should begin reviewing their pay structures and governance arrangements. Employers should consider:
- establishing clear job classifications and work groupings based on the value of work
- documenting objective criteria for basic pay, pay progression and variable remuneration
- creating a separate documented framework for other monetary and non-monetary benefits
- updating recruitment processes to remove pay-history questions and provide minimum-pay and benefits information before employment terms are agreed
- preparing HR, payroll and legal teams for employee information requests and pay-gap reporting
- reviewing agency-worker arrangements where the proposed rules apply to agency work
Employer risk The proposal would create material HR, payroll, recruitment and employee-relations obligations. Failure to comply could result in equal-pay claims, labor-inspectorate proceedings, remedial duties and administrative fines.
Government proposal to reduce unemployment benefits
Impact date: Proposed 1 January 2027 On 31 August 2026, the government approved proposed changes to unemployment benefit and retraining support. The measures are intended to reverse part of the increases introduced from 2026 and are expected to take effect from 1 January 2027.
For claimants with previous earnings, unemployment benefit during the first two months would fall from 80% to 65% of average net earnings or the assessment base. It would remain at 50% for the next two months and rise from 40% to 45% for the remaining support period. The maximum unemployment and retraining benefit would fall from 80% to 60% of the national average wage, and retraining support would generally fall from 80% to 60% of previous earnings.
For claimants without previous earnings, the rates would be 30%, 20% and 15% of the national average wage, and retraining support would fall to 25%. Preferential higher-rate periods for claimants aged 52 and over would be removed, although the overall support periods of five, eight or eleven months, depending on age, would remain unchanged.
Employer implications/action needed No direct new compliance obligations are proposed for employers. HR teams should monitor the legislation and update offboarding guidance, employee information and any redundancy or outplacement materials referring to unemployment or retraining benefits. Employers may also wish to consider the potential effect of lower benefits on employee mobility and redundancy planning.
Employer risk No immediate employer compliance risk arises at this stage. If enacted, outdated HR guidance could mislead departing employees, while lower state support may affect employee relations and the practical handling of workforce reductions.
Draft Act on Platform Work and related amendments
Impact date: Proposed 1 January 2027, with certain related amendments proposed to take effect from 1 January 2028. Not yet enacted; the timetable may change given the current legislative stage. The Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has prepared a draft Act on platform work as part of the Czech transposition of Directive (EU) 2024/2831. Following completion of the inter-ministerial consultation process, an updated version was submitted for government consideration in July 2026. The proposal has not yet been considered by the government. It is expected to introduce a rebuttable presumption of an employment relationship where there are circumstances indicating that the relevant platform work meets the characteristics of dependent work, as well as transparency obligations concerning automated allocation of work, evaluation and algorithmic management, together with requirements relating to human oversight and review of automated decisions.
Employer implications/action needed Digital labour platforms should review worker-classification models, contractual documentation, onboarding information, algorithmic management processes and data-protection notices. They should also review their processes for informing platform workers about automated monitoring and decision-making systems and for providing human oversight and review of relevant automated decisions. Other employers should monitor the related proposed amendments to the rules on dependent, illegal and unreported work, but the specific new information and consultation obligations concerning automated systems are now proposed to apply to employers that are digital labour platforms.
Employer risk The proposal is still pending, but platform operators and businesses relying on contractor models may face reclassification, information and compliance risks once the rules are adopted. Digital labour platforms may also face increased labor-inspection and employee-relations risks if they fail to comply with the proposed algorithmic-management, information or worker-status rules.
Proposed changes to employee benefit tax exemptions
Impact date: Proposed from 1 January 2027, with exceptions. Not yet enacted. The bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies in its third reading on 15 July 2026, but on 19 August, the Senate returned the bill to the Chamber of Deputies with amendments. The Czech government has submitted a bill reintroducing electronic sales reporting (EET 2.0), which also contains proposed amendments to the Income Taxes Act affecting employee benefits. The proposal would remove the current general annual tax-exemption cap of one half of the average wage for certain non-cash leisure benefits, while keeping a separate annual exemption limit of CZK 20,000 for non-cash recreation and holiday-trip benefits. It would also extend the employee benefit exemption to non-cash employer contributions for selected social services and exclude certain employer-provided preventive healthcare benefits from the employee's taxable income. The Chamber of Deputies approved the bill in its third reading on 15 July 2026. On 19 August, the Senate returned the bill to the Chamber of Deputies with amendments, including a proposal to remove the tax-exemption cap for health benefits. The final scope of the employee-benefit changes therefore remains subject to further consideration by the Chamber of Deputies.
Employer implications/action needed Monitor the legislative process and prepare to review Czech employee benefits and cafeteria arrangements for 2027. Ensure HR, payroll and benefits teams check whether benefit categories, payroll treatment and benefit-provider reporting will need to be updated. Track recreation and holiday-trip benefits separately against the proposed CZK 20,000 annual exemption limit. Revise employee-facing benefit communications before the 2027 benefit year if necessary.
Employer risk The proposal is not yet in force, but it may require payroll and benefit provider configuration changes from 2027. The main risk is incorrect tax treatment of employee benefits, failure to track the separate recreation / holiday-trip limit, or inaccurate employee communications. The compliance risk should be manageable if the bill is monitored and benefit administration is updated before the 2027 benefit cycle. The final treatment of health benefits remains uncertain pending the Chamber's reconsideration of the Senate’s amendments.
New Foreign Nationals Bill advances in Parliament
Impact date: Not yet enacted. Proposed 1 January 2029 The Czech Republic is progressing a major reform of its foreign-national entry and residence framework through a new Act on the Entry and Residence of Foreign Nationals, which is intended to replace the current legislation on the residence of foreign nationals. Following completion of its second reading in the Chamber of Deputies on 24 June 2026, the bill is currently awaiting its third reading. The proposed legislation would significantly modernize and simplify residence administration, primarily through the Integrated Foreign Nationals Agenda System (ICAS). The reform is intended to move many immigration procedures from a paper-based process to a largely digital system. The proposal also introduces the concept of a registered guarantor, which may include an employer, with electronic communication and related obligations handled through ICAS.
Employer implications/action needed Employers should monitor the final wording and implementation timetable. Employers with a substantial foreign national workforce should review their immigration and relocation processes, data responsibilities and service-provider roles.
Employer risk The proposal has no immediate compliance impact. Once enacted, employers acting as registered guarantors may face new immigration-related administrative and notification obligations, creating compliance risks if required information is incomplete, inaccurate or not provided on time.
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