Do you need to move, get your dog treated for strep throat, or take your dog to the vet? In all cases, these are situations that usually take place during your working hours. On which occasions are you entitled to paid (or unpaid) time off from your employer? And what if you want time off to travel, for example?
In the course of our lives, many things happen to us that simply make it impossible for us to come to work. Some situations where paid or unpaid leave can be taken are described directly in the Labour Code, while others are referred to a government regulation that sets out the scope and extent of such leave. Thanks to the legislation protecting employees, you will not only save your leave, but in many cases you will even receive income (wage or salary compensation) as if you were working properly.
You may have a number of reasons for going to the doctor – your employer may send you for an occupational health check, or it may be for a regular preventive check-up or illness. Each of these reasons has a slightly different regime.
In the event of an occupational health check-up or any examination that is related to your work, you are entitled to be given time off work for as long as necessary. You are also entitled to wage compensation.
Tip: We have covered occupational health examinations, their types and frequency in our article.
If you are not ill but still go to the doctor (for example, for a regular preventive check-up with the dentist or your GP), you should go outside your working hours. However, as this is usually not possible (either because of overlapping surgery hours with your working hours or because you are happy that the dentist has at least found you an appointment), your employer should give you time off in this case too.
It is to your advantage if you have chosen the medical centre closest to your home or workplace for the visit or procedure. In this case, you are entitled not only to time off work but also to wage compensation. If your practitioner is two hours away from your home, while the nearest one is only five minutes away, your employer should theoretically only reimburse you for the five-minute journey and the visit itself.
As a rule, no one asks where exactly your doctor is located and whether you spent an hour or two with him or her. In our experience, employers usually allow such visits on a flat-rate basis and fully reimburse them. Consistent application of the law would be more likely to occur when you leave work very frequently and abuse the benevolence of the law, or if you had all your doctors in Ostrava, for example, and worked in Prague. But even then the situation would not be black and white – an employee can argue that no specialist closer to his workplace was accepting new patients, there are long waiting times at the doctor’s office, etc. Unless it is an extreme abuse of the system, as a rule no one voluntarily enters into such disputes.
If you are a regular blood or plasma donor, you are entitled not only to travel to and from the donation, but also to a 24-hour recovery period after the donation. You can donate blood up to four or five times a year. In contrast, plasma can be donated every 14 days, which can theoretically mean 24 free days a year.
Under Czech law, however, employers cannot restrict or prohibit their employees from donating.
Interestingly, the law does not differentiate between free and paid donations, where the donor is entitled to approximately CZK 700 per plasma donation. Together with time off work and wage compensation, this is indeed an unprecedented benefit.
The situation is similar when donating other biological materials. The donation, travel and recovery time should be within 48 hours (the doctor may extend this time to 96 hours for serious reasons).
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Sickness is incapacity for work and must be certified by your doctor. You are entitled to wage replacement or sick pay (a benefit paid by the state) for the period of time your doctor says you should be. For thefirst 14 days of temporary incapacity for work, you will receive wage compensation from your employer. If the temporary incapacity for work (or quarantine) lasts longer than 14 calendar days, the state pays you sick pay. Previously, employees were not entitled to any wage replacement during the first three days of sickness. However, an amendment to the legislation made in 2019 abolished this so-called “withdrawal period” and the employer is now obliged to pay wage compensation from the first day of sickness. The wage replacement is, like sick pay, 60% of the employee’s average wage.
Tip: We have written more about the claims of sick employees in our article.
You are entitled to time off work for a strictly necessary period of time when accompanying a family member to a doctor for an examination or treatment – this can be for a sudden illness or accident, but also for a planned examination. However, you are only entitled if the accompanying is necessary (typically for a young child or an incapacitated parent) and if the tasks could not be carried out outside working hours. The maximum amount of time off can be one day.
If you are accompanying your spouse, partner, child, your parents or grandparents, or your spouse’s parents or grandparents, you are entitled to full pay. For other close people, your employer should give you time off, but without pay. If there is any doubt as to whether an escort is necessary, a doctor can confirm this.
Tip: If you accompany a sick child or other family member to the doctor’s, you won’t get a wage replacement from your employer, but a nursing allowance of 60% of your average wage. Find out how to apply for sick pay in our article.
If you are getting married, it is a good idea from an employment law point of view to set the date of the ceremony on a working day. In this case, you are entitled to two days off. One day always falls on the actual attendance at the ceremony. If the ceremony is on a weekend or public holiday, you are only entitled to one day off. Only one day’s pay is ever due.
The wedding of certain other relatives also merits time off. If your child is getting married, you are entitled to one day of paid time off. If, for example, your parent has planned a second wedding, you will only get one day’s leave without pay.
A death in the family may entitle you to up to three days’ paid leave (in the case of a husband, wife, partner or child). Two days are for the death itself and one day for attending the funeral.
You are entitled to one day’s paid leave if the funeral is for your parent, sibling, your spouse’s parent or sibling, or your child’s spouse. You may add one day to this if you are arranging a funeral.
For more distant relatives, such as your or your spouse’s grandparent, grandchild, or other close person who was living in the household with you at the time of the death, you are entitled to paid leave for as long as necessary, but not more than one day. The same conditions apply to the funeral of a fellow employee. The employer determines the persons attending the funeral.
For the funeral of more distant relatives such as an uncle, aunt, cousin, you must take leave or make individual arrangements with your employer. However, the law no longer guarantees you anything in this case.
The death is also linked to the probate process. If you are summoned to see a notary for this reason, you are entitled to leave without pay.
Tip: Saying goodbye to the deceased is an emotionally very difficult situation. Unfortunately, the worries don’t end there, because there are inheritance proceedings to be held, during which the deceased’s estate is divided among the heirs. In our article, we will advise you how to go through the inheritance proceedings without worrying, what to do in case of the deceased’s debts and how to avoid disputes and deal with the other heirs.
When a child is born, the father is entitled to paid leave, but only for as long as necessary:
If you are on notice, you are entitled to unpaid leave to look for a new job for one half-day a week during this period. It is irrelevant whether your employer or you have terminated your employment.
If you are studying at work, you must first agree with your employer whether he agrees with your studies and sees them as an improvement in the qualifications necessary for your position. If this is the case, you are entitled to time off work with pay equal to your average earnings:
By contrast, further training means, for example, some additional training or course that your employer may order. In such a case, it will also provide you with the cost of the training and the attendance itself is considered as work performance.
Tip: Not satisfied with your temporary job? Feeling burnt out or having trouble finding a job in your field? There is a retraining for exactly these cases. It can help you to deepen your knowledge or change your current field completely. The Job Centre can be of great help. It can save you tens of thousands on retraining courses. You can find out exactly how this works in our article on the topic: The Job Centre’s retraining offer.
Moving house can be another reason for taking time off. Here, a distinction is made as to whether the move is in the employer’s interest, then the employer will grant leave with pay. If this is not the case, unpaid leave may be granted for a maximum of one day for a move within the same municipality and for a maximum of two days for a move to another municipality.
In certain situations, your employer may require you to work on public holidays or order you to work overtime. Your employer has two options for compensation: extra pay or compensatory time off. In the case of compensatory time off, the math is simple: as much extra work as you worked, you can take off.
Sick leave for employees is a type of paid time off that is not regulated by the Labour Code. It is only a work benefit that your employer may or may not give you. If you have it in your employment contract, you can of course also request and claim it.
Tip: We have discussed other types of employment benefits in detail in our article.
If you wish to take unpaid leave for reasons other than those mentioned above, for example for travel or your own projects, it depends on your relationship with your employer and the extent to which you are dispensable. However, you are not entitled to leave in this case.
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