Annual Leave (Czech Republic)

Act No. 262/2006 Coll., Labour Code § 212 – 223

An employee who during a continuous period of employment with the same employer has worked for him at least 52 weeks in the relevant calendar year within the specified weekly working time for that period shall be entitled to annual leave of the specified weekly working time multiplied by the amount of leave (4 weeks) which the employee is entitled in the relevant calendar year.

If the employment relationship with the employer does not last at least 52 weeks, then the employee is not entitled to leave for the entire calendar year.

If the employee’s employment with one employer lasts for at least 4 weeks and the employee has worked at least 4 times the weekly working hours for the same employer, then the employee is entitled to a proportional part of the leave for the calendar year. The length of the proportional part of the leave is calculated in such a way that for each specified or shorter weekly working time worked, the employee is entitled to 1/52 of this specified or shorter weekly working time multiplied by the amount of ​​leave (4 weeks).

The total amount of leave is at least 4 weeks in a calendar year. The length of leave to which an employee is entitled in a calendar year is rounded up to whole hours.

For an employee who has worked for more than 52 times the specified weekly working hours, the length of the leave shall be extended by 1/52th of the leave per calendar year for each additional specified weekly working time.

Example:

The employee will start full-time on October 1, i.e. 40 hours, with equal working hours. The amount of ​​leave entitlement is 4 weeks. If the employee works by the end of the calendar year, he will work 13 full weekly work shifts, so his entitlement to leave will be as follows:

40 hours / 52 weeks (length of the calendar year)× 13 weeks (hours worked)× 4 weeks (total holiday entitlement) = 40 hours (holiday entitlement).

Time Offs – The missing of shift due to certain personal obstacles at work such as due to illness, quarantine order, parental leave, and other important personal obstacles, can be recognized as the performance of work for the purpose of calculating the leave, but is allowed up to only 20 times the specified weekly working time or 20 times the shorter weekly working time in the same calendar year.

Also, the above obstacles will be considered as the performance of work if the employee has worked during a calendar year for at least 12 times the specified weekly working hours or shorter weekly hours.

Holiday Pay – Employees are entitled to wages in an amount equal to average earnings for the period of annual leave. An employee is entitled to receive wages for untaken vacation only in case of termination of employment.

Shortening of Leave – An employer may reduce the leave only for an unexcused missed shift by the number of missed hours. The leave can only be reduced for reasons such as temporary incapacity, quarantine, maternal/parental leave. When reducing the leave an employee whose employment with the same employer lasted for the entire calendar year must be granted leave for at least 2 weeks for the entire year.

Manner of taking annual leave – An employer shall ensure that the employees take the annual leave in the calendar year in which the entitlement arose unless personal obstacles at work take place. An employee can be granted leave in several parts, but at least one part must be of 2 weeks duration in total unless the employer and employee agree on different lengths of leave.

Carry Forward of Leave – An employer and employee may enter into an agreement in cases where an employee has leave that exceeds the statutory minimum of 4 weeks, to be carried forward until the end of the following calendar year.

In case, an employee is not able to use the leave in the relevant calendar year due to personal obstacles at work such as temporary incapacity, maternity leave, parental leave, etc, in such circumstances, the annual leave can be taken after the end of such obstacles at work via an agreement between the employer and employee.

Annual leave coinciding with Public Holiday – If during an employee’s annual leave, a public holiday falls on a day which is otherwise his normal working day, it shall not be included in the leave. However, this does not apply if the employee would otherwise \have to work on the day of the holiday.

If the employer has scheduled compensatory leave for an employee – for overtime work or for work performed on a public holiday in such a way that it falls within the period of annual leave, in such case, the employer shall assign the employee compensatory leave for another day.