Leiden labour law students visit Czech Labour Inspectorate in Prague
During the recent study trip that Sine Labore Nihil (the labour law study association) took to Prague, Leiden’s labour law students visited the Czech Labour Inspectorate. Miloslav Kase, the Inspectorate’s Head of Legal Affairs, gave a lecture and students had the chance to ask questions to a full panel of employees.
With around 500 inspectors in total, the Czech Inspectorate regulates a very broad range of matters including work safety and safe machinery – similar to the Dutch Labour Inspectorate. However, it also deals with cases involving sham employment arrangements, discrimination, illegal labour, holiday legislation, temporary agency work and temporary contracts (the ‘chain regulation’). Remarkably, the Inspectorate fines employers who are found to have violated the rules but it does not usually impose any employment measures.
Any temporary contracts handed out in excess of the legal maximum are not automatically converted into permanent contracts – the employer simply receives a fine. The rule in the Czech Republic is that businesses are permitted to hand out three consecutive three-year contracts. In 2023, the Inspectorate imposed approximately €14 million in fines for violations of this rule.
While the Czech Republic faces similar challenges to the Netherlands, many of their solutions are quite different.