A group of parliamentary members and right-wing political party senators lodged an objection with the Czech Constitutional Court against the new Labour Code, which took effect from 1 January 2007. The court conceded to some of their objections and repealed the relevant provisions of the act. The judgement has generally been perceived as a measure which will restrict the power of trade unions. Employers agree with the decision while employee representatives are opposed to it.
Background
Since its inception, Act No. 262/2006 of the Collection of Laws – the Czech Republic’s Labour Code – has been a controversial piece of legislation. The act was adopted by the Czech parliament in 2006, despite the objections of the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus (CZ0605029I). In the same year, a group of members of parliament (MPs) and right-wing political party senators filed a complaint concerning a number of provisions of the Labour Code with the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic (Ústavní soud ČR). Moreover, the newly elected right-wing government unsuccessfully attempted to delay the law from taking effect (CZ0610029I).
In March 2008, the Constitutional Court accepted the constitutional complaint and repealed 11 out of a total 30 Labour Code provisions which had been reviewed.
Most significant changes
The Constitutional Court intervened in the following areas with respect to the country’s Labour Code.
- A change in the relationship between the Labour Code and the Civil Code – by way of the court’s said ruling, this relationship, which was originally founded on the ‘principal of reference’, is to be fundamentally changed to a relationship based on subsidiarity. Therefore, in terms of industrial relations, the Civil Code will be applied in all cases where the Labour Code does not contain special legal regulations (differing from the general regulations contained in the Civil Code) or where these special legal regulations are not sufficient. This entails a fundamental change in the concept of generally binding labour law regulations applied in the Czech Republic.
- A change in the regulation of the plurality of trade union organisations during collective bargaining and in the conclusion of a collective agreement – if trade unions operating in a company do not agree, the employer does not have to, contrary to the provisions of the current legislation, negotiate or conclude a collective agreement with the strongest/largest of these trade unions.
- Restriction of trade unions’ supervisory powers – trade union organisations will no longer have the right to carry out inspections of companies’ observance of the Labour Code, the Employment Act, other industrial regulations, internal regulations and obligations ensuing from collective agreements. The unions retain the right to carry out inspections of the health and safety situation in a company, but will not be authorised to impose ‘sanctions’ in the form of issuing a binding instruction to remove defects that are discovered, or banning work or overtime work and night work.
- Existence of a works council simultaneously with a trade union – contrary to the previous legislation, a works council can be established at an employer’s business and can also operate alongside a trade union; however, the authority to conclude a collective agreement will continue to remain exclusively within the trade unions’ power.
Reaction of social partners
The Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic (Svaz průmyslu a dopravy ČR, SP ČR), which initiated the filing of a constitutional complaint against most of the repealed provisions, has welcomed the change. The confederation reminded the social partners that it had warned, from the very outset, that the new Labour Code was an imperfect law containing a number of fundamental deficiencies.
However, according to the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (Českomoravská konfederace odborových svazů, ČMKOS), the court’s judgement will, in practice, result in a reduction in protection for employees, a weakening of the status of trade unions and collective bargaining, as well as difficulties in interpreting some of the labour law provisions – including uncertainties ensuing from the unclear status of the Labour Code with respect to the Civil Code.
Commentary
After the adoption in October 2007 of a so-called technical amendment, the aim of which was to remove the most serious legislative deficiencies of the Labour Code, the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí ČR, MPSV ČR) intends in the foreseeable future to submit another so-called conceptual, material amendment of the labour codices. This is meant to be based on the judgement of the Czech Constitutional Court and to focus on ensuring greater support for flexibility in the labour market. In light of the opposing opinions of the social partners and political parties regarding the court’s ruling and the Labour Code in general, protests from trade union head offices in connection with this planned initiative are likely to arise, along with difficult negotiations in parliament.
Jaroslav Hála and Soňa Veverková, Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs (RILSA)