Employee’s liability: what is the maximum you can pay?

What about damage caused intentionally or after quenching thirst with a hoppy drink during working hours? Can an employee agree in advance to indemnify the employer? And in which case is the employee liable for compensation?

The Labour Code always refers to the employee and the employer in relation to the employee’s liability for damages. However, do not be confused by this, as an employee is also considered to be a natural person who concludes a work performance agreement with the employer. Therefore, compensation to the employer is not excluded in this case either.

As stated above, the employee is liable for compensation to the employer only to a limited extent. It must always be damage caused culpably and in connection with work-related acts.

For example, if an employee inadvertently knocks over an important fibre-optic cable on a construction site, his employer must pay the victim the full amount of the damage and, if applicable, the loss of earnings. However, the employee can only recover a maximum of 4.5 times his average monthly wage, no matter how high the damage is.

If the employer also caused the damage, the employee shall only pay a proportionate part of the damage according to the degree of his fault. If more than one employee is liable for the damage, each of them shall bear a proportionate part of the damage according to the degree of his or her fault.

Further exceptions are provided for in agreements governing so-called material liability or liability for entrusted objects. These are discussed below.

However, how is the amount of damages the employer can claim calculated? Damage under the Labour Code is the actual reduction of the property of the employer to whom the damage has been caused.

Thus, for example, it is possible for an employer to claim from an employee the cost of repairing damaged machinery or equipment, but only if such costs would not have been incurred by the employer – but for the harmful event. For example, if a maintenance worker regularly comes to repair the machine in question, then the employer cannot claim the cost of that maintenance worker from the employee.

However, employee liability is not always so simple and there are some exceptions. For example, the four and a half times limitation does not apply if the damage was caused intentionally, while drunk, or after the use of other addictive substances (e.g. marijuana). However, the employer must prove this. This can be done, for example, by calling witnesses from the “wet district” when the employee admits to his colleagues in the evening after his shift that he cut the cable on purpose in order to “embarrass” the employer. In that case, the employee is then liable for the full amount of the damage.

On the other hand, the employee is not liable for damage caused by him in the course of averting damage to the employer or a danger to life or limb which is imminent, if he did not intentionally create the condition and acted in a manner reasonable in the circumstances. However, increased caution is also recommended here. The employee has a duty to protect the employer’s property. Thus, if, for example, an employee rushing home saw strange smoke above the lumber store and did nothing, did not report it, but only mentioned it in the pub in the evening, the employer could indirectly blame him for the damage caused by the fire (here the employee is liable for damages up to three and a half times his average monthly earnings).

Damage caused by employees

The employer is also liable for any damage that may be caused to an employee in the course of his or her work or by some other intentional act. Similarly, it is liable for damage caused to an employee by other employees acting on behalf of the employer in breach of legal obligations. An exception is damage to a means of transport used by the employee in the performance of his/her duties without the employer’s consent. The same shall apply to tools, equipment and articles of the employee necessary for the performance of the work used without the consent of the employer.

However, the employer shall also be liable to the employee for damage to items normally brought to work and left by the employee in the performance of his/her work tasks. However, the employee must exercise the right to compensation no later than 15 days from the date on which he became aware of the damage.

An interesting case was settled by the court some time ago, involving the theft of a car of an employee who used it as usual to travel to work and parked it on the employer’s premises. She put the car keys along with other personal belongings in the assigned locker in the locker room used for changing clothes. It was ransacked. The court held that, for purposes of employer liability for damages caused by the removed items, a personal automobile cannot be considered an item customarily brought to work. An employee is only liable for a personal car that she places on the employer’s premises in an unguarded parking lot up to the amount of £10,000, unless the damage to the car was caused by another employee.

The employer is obliged to reimburse the employee for the actual damage. In the case of abandoned items, if the employee brings to work items that he does not normally wear and the employer does not take them into special custody, the employer shall be liable for damages up to CZK 10,000. That was the case with the car in question. If it is established that the damage to the item was caused by another employee or that the item was damaged in the employer’s special custody, the employer is also liable to pay the employee the full amount of the damage. However, it is not enough to have a doorman at the entrance to the premises or cameras at the workplace. That does not count as special custody.

However, if the employee does not report the damage to the employer without undue delay within 15 days of the date on which he became aware of the damage, this right to compensation is extinguished.