Electronic contract? Yes, but only if you confirm it from your own address
The possibility of concluding employment contracts and agreements(FTE, FTE) electronically has existed for a long time, but the amendment to the Labour Code from June 2025 brings more precise rules on how to do it. Your employer can send you the contract by email – but only if you have given them your email address in advance and you confirm and return the signed contract from there. You can sign it with an electronic signature, but a scanned signature will also suffice.
But it doesn’t stop there. Your employer must send you the final contract once again, to your private email address. Only then is the process complete. If you change your mind within seven days and have not yet started work, you can withdraw from the contract.
Employees should therefore be careful what email addresses they provide and check their inbox carefully. Even a digital signature or confirmation can be as legally binding as one on paper.
Termination by e-mail: not valid without your consent
But the electronic contract itself is not the only document that can land in your inbox. Your employer can also send you a notice of termination of employment or any other document relating to the termination of your employment. But beware – there are stricter rules here.
You can’t do this without your express written consent. In your consent, you must give a specific email address that your employer cannot access – for example, your private mailbox. This consent is not forever. You can withdraw it at any time, perhaps also electronically.
Once the notice arrives and you acknowledge receipt (even clicking “read” is enough), it is delivered immediately. And if you don’t respond to the email? The law gives the employee 15 days. If you do not acknowledge receipt within this period, the notice is deemed to have been served on the last day of the period.
These rules give employees some protection, but they also put more responsibility on them. One overlooked email and you could miss an important announcement – for example, a change in working hours or a request to receive a document that affects your continued employment with the company. That’s why it pays to keep an eye on your email.
Tip for article
As of 1 June 2025, major changes to the Labour Code, known as “flexinovela“, came into force. They are intended to make the Czech labour market more flexible, more modern and better adapted to real life – whether it is faster notice, the possibility to work during parental leave or part-time jobs for minors.
A payroll without consent? Newly yes, but beware of confirmation
In addition to contracts and termination notices, digitisation has also affected another important area – payroll. And in this case, the law does the opposite: your employer no longer needs your consent for electronic delivery at all.
Now you can send the pay slip not only by post or in person, but also by e-mail, via an internal system or even to a data box. You can even send it to your private address if it is available to you. This simplifies the administration considerably, but there is a catch – without your acknowledgement of receipt, the delivery is not valid.
In other words, if the notice just “lands” in your mailbox and you don’t acknowledge it (e.g. by clicking to read or otherwise), the employer is obliged to find another way to deliver it to you. And if they don’t receive confirmation within 15 days, they have to start again – this time by another route.
