Shrnutí: An employee is entitled to leave if the employment relationship lasts at least 4 weeks and the employee works at least four times his/her weekly working hours. Holiday is calculated in hours. With a full-time work week of 40 hours and four weeks’ leave, the annual entitlement is 160 hours. People working on a FTE or FTE contract may also be entitled to holiday if the arrangement lasts at least 28 days and they work at least 80 hours.
Not sure if your employer has calculated your holiday correctly? As part of our tailored legal problem solving service, we will assess your case and suggest a specific course of action.
Employees are entitled to annual leave or a pro rata part of it, or additional leave if the statutory conditions are met.
Annual leave is payable to an employee who has worked 52 times his or her normal working hours in the relevant calendar year. Leave is now calculated in hours. With a four-week period and a 40-hour week, this amounts to 160 hours. The minimum legal holiday entitlement is 4 weeks, 5 weeks for selected public sector employees and 8 weeks for teaching staff and academic staff at universities.
Find out what the current rules are for taking leave.
If you are not entitled to a full year’s holiday, you may be entitled to a pro-rata amount. The condition is that the employment relationship lasted at least 4 weeks and that you worked at least 4 times your working time. The pro rata part of the leave is then equivalent to 1/52 of the annual leave for each week worked.
For example, if you work for an employer who gives you four weeks’ holiday a year for 30 weeks, you will be entitled to 93 hours’ holiday:
The incomplete hours are rounded up to give a holiday entitlement of 93 hours.
Read our article to find out when and how you can take your holiday.
However, if you have not yet worked 60 days, you are only entitled to holiday for days worked. Specifically, you are entitled to 1/12 of your holiday for every 21 days worked.
Therefore, an employee may be entitled to annual leave for one or two twelfths of the annual leave (for at least 21 or 42 days worked), but if the employee has worked a further 21 days, the number of days worked would already exceed 60 and the employee would be entitled to annual leave or a pro rata part thereof.
Not sure if you are entitled to holiday? Do you think your employer has cheated you out of the holiday you are entitled to? Or do you need help with anything? Contact us. We will assess your case and draft a legal service to resolve it within 24 hours.
Employees who work in difficult conditions, such as miners or emergency workers, are entitled to an extra week of leave, known as Additional Leave.
Leave can only be reduced for an unexcused shift by the number of hours missed. Unexcused absences for shorter parts of individual shifts may be cumulative. Leave shall be reduced only for unexcused absences occurring in the calendar year in question. An employee whose employment relationship with the same employer has lasted for a full calendar year must still have at least 2 weeks of leave remaining after the reduction.
Leave may not be reduced for absence for reasons of hardship on the part of the employer, maternity leave (or taking parental leave instead of maternity leave, in which case it is only counted to the extent that the woman can take maternity leave), temporary incapacity for work due to an occupational injury or disease, taking leave, holidays or compensatory time off for overtime or public holidays. However, the law restricts crediting for certain obstacles, for example, temporary incapacity for work due to ordinary illness is only counted under certain conditions and up to a certain limit.
Find out everything you need to know about maternity leave in our earlier article.
We were contacted by an employee whose employer claimed at the end of her employment that she had lost almost all of her leave due to prolonged sick leave. According to her pay slip, she had only a few hours left, even though part of her absence should have been counted as work under the Labour Code. We reviewed the attendance records, the employment contract and the payroll documents and recalculated the actual entitlement. We then sent the employer a legal notice with a specific calculation. Ultimately, the client was paid for the unused vacation time at the end of her employment.
Unused leave is carried over to the next year. The employer primarily determines the period of use. It should do so according to certain rules, including that the employee should use the leave in the year for which it is due, but if certain circumstances prevent this and the leave is not used in that year, it is carried over to the next year, with the proviso that if the employer does not determine the period of use of this “old” leave by 30 June of the following year, the employee must determine it himself or herself, giving the employer at least 14 days’ notice.
If your employer has a long history of not allowing you to take your leave, incorrectly carrying it over to the next year, or refusing to pay you for it at the end of your employment, don’t let it go. As part of our bespoke Legal Resolution service, we will review your employment contract, payslips and leave records and suggest a specific course of action against your employer.
Probationary leave is not usual, primarily the probationary period is for the employee and employer to get to know each other. It is therefore not very common for an employee to take leave during the probationary period. However, the Labour Code does not restrict the taking of leave in this way and does not lay down any rules other than those applicable outside the probationary period. However, the probationary period is also extended by a full day’s leave. Entitlement to leave, however, does not arise until a certain period of time has been served.
It is up to the employer whether or not to allow the employee to take leave during the probationary period. However, it is very unlikely that, with so few days worked, the employer will allow the employee to take leave during the probationary period.
Find out more about sickness and probationary leave in our article.
As a sole trader you are not entitled to holiday. The holiday is paid by your employer, which of course you do not have as a sole trader.
However, the situation is different if you work as a self-employed person, but for one company for a long time. This is called a shvarcsystem, which is not legal in the Czech Republic, but nevertheless this prohibition is often circumvented and therefore is not exceptional. In the case of a shvarcsystem, you are therefore entitled to paid leave.
You can find out more about paid leave for self-employed workers in the case of the shvarcsystem in our article.
Employees working on a FTE or FTE may also be entitled to holiday from 2024. The conditions are treated similarly to employment contracts, but the law sets a notional working week of 20 hours for leave purposes. The holiday entitlement will therefore arise if the agreement lasts for at least 4 weeks continuously in a given calendar year and the employee works at least 80 hours. The fulfilment of the conditions is assessed separately for each employment relationship, unless the relationships are directly related.
Read our articles that discuss the performance of work agreement and the employment agreement. Find out what to look out for when entering into one and what the benefits are.
Holiday entitlement is assessed according to the current rules of the Labour Code. The basic principle is simple: leave is calculated in hours and is based on the employee’s weekly working time. The full annual entitlement arises if the employee works 52 times his weekly working time. If the employment relationship lasts for a shorter period of time, at least a pro rata portion of the leave may be accrued.
Employees should be particularly wary of situations where they start or leave during the year, work part-time, take sick leave or work on a FTE or FTE. It is in these cases that employers often make calculation errors. For agreements, it is important to remember the requirement of at least 28 days of agreement and at least 80 hours worked.
If your employer says you are not entitled to holiday pay, it is always worth checking your specific employment contract, time records and payslips. A miscalculation could mean that you lose hours of vacation time or money when your employment ends.
You are entitled to pro-rata holiday if your employment lasts at least 4 weeks and you work at least four times your weekly working hours.
Yes, the law does not prohibit it. But it depends on whether your employer approves your taking leave.
Holidays are calculated in hours. For a full-time 40-hour week and four weeks’ leave, the annual entitlement is 160 hours.
Yes, as long as the agreement lasts at least 28 days and you work at least 80 hours. The entitlement is based on a notional working week of 20 hours.
Yes, the rules are similar to the DPP. The agreement must last at least 28 days and you must work at least 80 hours.
Untaken leave is usually carried over to the following year. Untaken leave must be reimbursed on termination of employment.
No. A self-employed person does not have an employer and is therefore not legally entitled to paid leave. The exception may be where it is effectively dependent work masquerading as a business.
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Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 15 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
We’ll review your case and suggest how to resolve it for CZK 690.
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