Guide to Restructuring a Cross-Border Workforce

Yes, there is. An employee is redundant if the following conditions are met:

• the employer adopted a decision on organisational change;
• the change concerns the scope of activities, tasks, technical equipment, number of employees, or otherwise alters the structure of the employer;
• the aim of the change is to increase work efficiency, reduce costs, or otherwise alter the performance of the employer’s enterprise; and
• as a result, the employee’s work is redundant or not needed.

According to case law, the employee’s work is not needed, either at all or at least in part, with the rest being distributed among the current employees or corporate body. Rebranding the position, hiring a new employee to carry out the work of the dismissed employee shortly thereafter, or otherwise fabricating the redundancy with an ulterior motive does not qualify as redundancy.

Czech law provides two other similar reasons based on which an employer is entitled to terminate employment – closing down or relocation of the employer’s undertaking or its part. Together with redundancy, these three reasons are known as “organisational reasons” (in Czech: “organizační důvody”) for termination of employment. However, closing down and relocation of the employer or its part are different reasons than the redundancy itself, and therefore we do not address them further.

Yes, Italian law gives a very brief definition of redundancy, which can occur when there are technical, organisational, or productive reasons grounding the decision to reduce the workforce.

The employer must take the following steps:

• review underlying documents (including organisational charts), decide what organisational change needs to be made and work out which positions are no longer needed, and plan the timing;
• adopt a decision on organisational change, including its effective date and which redundant positions are cancelled. The decision doesn’t have to be in writing or state reasons for the redundancy. However, both are highly recommended and a market standard, as this serves as evidence;
• if there are unions, consult the unions in advance (see question 4), and if a union representative is supposed to be made redundant, obtain the union’s consent in advance (see question 11);
• execute dismissal either by a termination agreement (recommended) or a termination notice with the redundant employees. In case of termination notice, the redundancy must (based on the decision) take effect on or before the notice period expired, not after; and
• implement the organisational change (including updating organisational charts).

Organisational changes may also be governed by collective agreements, in which case additional rules may apply (this applies to all the questions below).

The process varies depending on:

• the number of employees employed; and
• the commencement date of the employee to be dismissed.

Where an employer employs fewer than 15 employees in the plant where the affected employees work, and fewer than 60 employees in total, the employees, irrespective of the date on which they commenced employment, can be dismissed in writing by a dismissal letter, which must be delivered to them. The employer must have evidence of receipt.

Where the employer employs 15 or more employees in the plant, or 60 or more employees in total, only employees who started employment on or after 7 March 2015 can be dismissed by a dismissal letter. Employees who started employment before 7 March 2015 can only be dismissed at the end of a procedure in front of the local office of the Ministry of Labour, which includes the following mandatory steps:

• the employer notifies the employee and the local office of the Ministry of Labour competent for the municipality in which the employee works of the intention to dismiss the employee;
• this notice includes all the elements of the dismissal letter;
• the local office of the Ministry of Labour arranges a meeting and requests the parties to attend;
• during the meeting, the conciliation board (comprising a representative of the employers, a representative of the employees, and a third member from the Ministry of Labour) tries to find an agreement between the parties regarding the terms of the employment termination; and
• if an agreement is signed, the procedure is closed and the employee cannot file a claim in respect of the dismissal; however, if the employee does not participate in the meeting, or the attempt to find an agreement is unsuccessful, then the employer must send the final dismissal letter to the employee (with proof of receipt) and the employee will be entitled to file a claim in respect of the dismissal if they so wish.

Yes, Czech law provides a special procedure for “collective dismissal” in all three cases of organisational changes (see question 1).

The threshold is:

• ten employees if the employer has 20 to 100 employees;
• 10% of employees if the employer has 101 to 300 employees; and
• 30 employees if the employer has more than 300 employees.

The respective number of employees must be dismissed due to redundancy within a period of 30 days. If at least five employees are dismissed within 30 days by termination notice due to redundancy, then employees dismissed in the same period by termination agreement are included in these thresholds.

In addition to the process above, collective dismissal must be:

• consulted with unions 30 days in advance, or notified to each affected employee if there are no active unions at the employer; and
• notified to the local Labour Office: (i) in advance, including information on commencement of the consultation process with unions; and (ii) on its result once it’s completed, in the form of a written report that must be delivered in copy to unions, which then have the right to comment on it – employment relationships can terminate only after the lapse of 30 days following this.

Yes, the procedure is different where there is a collective redundancy. The threshold for the collective redundancy procedure to apply is four dismissals in 120 days, and it only applies to employers with more than 15 employees.

Yes, the employer must consult any termination notice in advance. Agreement doesn’t have to be reached (with the exception of employees with enhanced protection; see question 11). In practice, the consultation is more of an announcement.

In case of collective dismissal, consultation must take place, and the employer must try to reach an agreement and inform the Labour Office of the result.

Union consultation phase in the collective redundancy procedure

Employers need to consult with unions only when the collective dismissal procedure applies. During the first 45 days of the procedure (first phase), the consultation phase involves only the unions and the works councils. If an agreement is found in the first phase, the procedure is closed and the redundancies will be managed as agreed with the unions and works councils.

However, if no agreement is reached with the unions in the first phase, a second phase starts, and the consultation phase continues for up to 30 days with the involvement of the Ministry of Labour, which acts as conciliator between the employer and the unions.

Collective redundancy with less social impact

The length of the procedure is halved where there are ten or fewer employees to be dismissed.

Collective redundancy with a large social impact

The entire procedure lasts 180 days or more where:

• the employer employs more than 250 employees;
• the mass dismissal procedure is started because of the decision to shut down an entire plant or the company’s entire activity in Italy; and
• the collective dismissal involves more than 50 employees.

In the first 180 days, the employer prepares the social plan and then the parties (employer and unions) discuss the social plan. After this preliminary discussion, if no agreement is found, the employer starts the 75-day collective redundancy process.

No need to reach an agreement

Even if a consultation phase is mandatorily required, there is no need to reach an agreement with the unions. Indeed, if the consultation phase ends without an agreement, the employer can proceed with administering the dismissals in the 120 days after the end of the 75-day collective redundancy process.

Individual redundancies do not require union consultation

Individual redundancies can be carried out without any union involvement, as no consultation phase is required by law.

It is the employer’s right to make an organisational change and its factual validity cannot be challenged. However, the individual dismissals may be challenged by employees. If successful (ie, the employer doesn’t prove redundancy), the restructure in the individual case may be prevented.

In the case of collective dismissals, it may be delayed by the unions prolonging the consultation. However, even then the unions and the Labour Office can’t prevent the dismissal, and the only way to prevent individual dismissal is a successful individual challenge by the dismissed employee.

If the unions believe that the collective agreement was violated by the redundancy or in the process of its implementation, they may dispute this violation. The dispute may be resolved by a mediator or escalated to an arbitrator. However, this doesn’t prevent the employer from executing the dismissals or restructure (only if violation is later found, it may have certain implications based on the individual collective agreement and nature of its violation).

No, it cannot. When the collective redundancy procedure is followed and it ends without an agreement with the unions, the dismissals can be administered.

In case of individual dismissal, the consultation process is, rather, a notification (with the exception of employees with enhanced protection; see question 11) including:

• the identity of the employee;
• termination grounds (redundancy); and
• basic details of the redundancy (why and when).

It should take place prior to the dismissal (no specific deadline is given).

In case of collective dismissal, the consultation process includes:

• measures preventing or limiting the collective dismissal;
• mitigation measures (eg, employing the redundant employee at other workplaces of the employer);
• reasons;
• number and professions of redundant employees;
• number and professions of all the employees;
• the period during which the collective dismissal takes place;
• selection method of redundant employees; and
• severance pay and other rights of the redundant employees.

The consultation process must take place no later than 30 days prior to the collective dismissal. The local Labour Office must be notified as well (see question 3).

The administrative fine for violation of the consultation process with unions is up to 200,000 koruna. Employees who suffer damage as a result may claim compensation.

Collective redundancy procedure

The consultation phase starts with the so-called “opening letter” sent by the employer to the works councils, the unions, and the Ministry of Labour, in which the employer explains the reasons for the proposed reduction in force, the current structure of the company, and what the company will look like once the collective redundancies have taken effect. When the letter is sent (day 1 of the procedure), all the following terms then start to run:

• works councils and unions have seven days to ask the employer for a meeting to discuss the case;
• in the first phase (see question 4), lasting a maximum of 45 days from day 1, the company, works councils, and unions can meet any time they wish. The discussion is open, so the unions may want to ask the company to avoid the dismissals or reduce the number of employees impacted, while the company may want to focus the discussion on possible compensation packages to be offered to avoid claims; and
• during the second phase (see question 4), lasting a maximum of 30 days from the end of phase 1, the employer and the unions will meet before the Ministry of Labour, which will work as a conciliator, trying to help the parties find an agreement. The discussion is open, as per phase 1.

If the employer fails to follow the collective dismissal consultation process, all the dismissals issued without following the correct process may be deemed unfair by the court in case of a claim. The only available solution is signing individual separation agreements with all the affected employees to avoid litigation.

Yes, an economic business rationale should be the reason for organisational change, and therefore the redundancy, and as such should be part of the consultation.

Yes, the employer must present an economic business rationale in the letter with which it starts the consultation phase. However, this rationale cannot be challenged by the unions. It would only be examined by the court if a claim against the dismissals is brought by the impacted employees, to evaluate the fairness of the dismissal.

In case of collective dismissals, if there are no unions or employee representatives, the employer must inform and directly consult the affected employees to the same extent.

In case of individual dismissal, it is not a requirement, nor best practice, and highly depends on the strategy in the individual case.

No, in Italy there is no need to consult employees individually. For individual redundancies, the employee is normally only informed of the termination when the dismissal letter is delivered to them. This is important to prevent the employee calling in sick to avoid the dismissal (as employees cannot be dismissed during their sick leave).

When a collective redundancy process is started, only collective consultations are allowed and individual consultation may be seen as a violation of the union’s role, with potential additional risks of claims from the unions.

The only rule is that the employee’s position or work must be genuinely redundant (see question 1). If more than one employee fulfils this condition, it is up to the employer which employee to select. However, this choice must not indicate that there are in fact different motives for the redundancy of the selected employee (eg, disputes with the employer, unsatisfactory performance, or gender or other discriminatory motives).

Yes, the law on collective redundancies sets out the selection criteria in the case of collective redundancies, which are:

• length of service;
• family circumstances; and
• organizational, technical and productive needs.

Even for individual redundancies (where there is no selection criteria mandated), it is best practice to consider those criteria.

Yes, a termination notice due to redundancy is not allowed during the period for which an employee is:

• declared temporarily medically unfit for work or in institutional treatment (unless the employee has intentionally caused this unfitness, or it is a direct consequence of the employee’s alcohol intoxication or substance abuse);
• deployed in military exercises or military service;
• on long-term full leave to act in public office;
• pregnant, or on maternity leave, paternity leave, or parental leave;
• declared temporarily unfit for night work if they perform night work; or
• on leave caring for a child under 10 years of age, treating a child under 10 years of age or other natural persons, or providing long-term care, all as specified in the Czech Sickness Insurance Act.

Pregnant employees and new mothers of children up to one year old cannot be dismissed, unless the reason for the dismissal is the shutdown of the plant or the closure of the business. The same protection applies to fathers who take parental leave.

Yes, members of a trade union body during their term of office and for a period of one year after the end of their term of office. The employer must have prior consent of the unions for termination of their employment relationship by a notice. Consent is deemed to be given if the unions don’t respond within 15 days. Consent is valid for two months. Termination notice without such consent is invalid unless the court decides in the validity case that the employer could not have been justifiably required to keep the employee.

Enhanced protection is granted to disabled employees, in the case of both individual and collective redundancies. The laws regarding collective redundancies contain an obligation to maintain the same percentage of woman and disabled employees at the end of a collective redundancy process.

A redundant employee is entitled to a statutory severance payment, regardless of whether the employment termination is made by notice or agreement and if the redundancy is explicitly stated as the reason for the termination.

The severance payment is due on the next scheduled pay date following the termination of employment. A later due date can be agreed.

When made redundant, employees are only entitled to their notice period or an indemnity in lieu thereof, as well as all mandatory termination payments, such as accrued but unused holidays and the severance payment (known as TFR).

Termination fees are generally due to the Italian social security authority (INPS) when dismissing an employee. The fees are higher in the case of collective redundancies.

The severance payment amount differs based on the length of the employment as follows:

• one gross average monthly salary of the employee if the employment lasted less than one year;
• two gross average monthly salaries of the employee if the employment lasted at least one year but less than two years; and
• three gross average monthly salaries of the employee if the employment lasted at least two years.

If the working hours account applies (specific working hours distribution scheme under the Czech Labour Code) the statutory severance is the relevant amount above plus three gross average monthly salaries of the employee.

The severance payment may also be higher if stated so by:

• agreement between the parties;
• the employer’s internal regulations; or
• a collective bargaining agreement.

A gross average monthly salary of the employee must be calculated for each employee separately using the specific rules of the Labour Code.

The indemnity in lieu of notice is equivalent to the remuneration that would have been paid during the notice period, which is stated in the collective bargaining agreement, depending on length of service and level of employment.

Additional severance packages are normally offered to dismissed employees to avoid litigation, and those amounts are generally decided based on the risk of an unfair dismissal. A fair range normally varies from six to ten months for people recently hired, to 15 to 18 months for people with a longer length of service. This is only an average; severance packages may vary on a case-by-case basis.

When offering packages in case of a collective redundancy process, unions always try to negotiate equal amounts or equal monthly salaries for all employees involved.

Not in cases of individual dismissals.

In cases of collective dismissals, the employer must notify the relevant branch of the Labour Office:

• of the intention to carry out collective dismissal;
• that the consultation process has been initiated with the unions or the employees; and
• of the specific aspects of the collective dismissal, to the same extent as the unions (see question 6).

Following the consultation, the employer must deliver a written report to the Labour Office stating:

• that the employer has decided on collective redundancies;
• the outcome of the consultation process;
• the number and occupational composition of all employees; and
• the number and occupational composition of the employees to be made redundant.

A copy of the report must be delivered to the unions, which then have the right to comment on it.

In the case of collective redundancies, the employer must notify the Ministry of Labour, which may be involved in phase 2 of the collective redundancy procedure if an agreement is not found during phase 1.

In the case of individual redundancies, for employees who commenced employment before 7 March 2015 and only in companies with more than 15 employees in the plant or 60 in total, the individual redundancy procedure provides for a communication to be sent to the local office of the Ministry of Labour, in which the employer explains the reasons for termination. The local labour office schedules a meeting with the employer, the employee, and a commission comprising three members (one representing the employer, one representing the employee, and the third acting as a neutral member). During the meeting, the committee helps the parties to find an agreement. If no agreement is found, then the employer can deliver the final termination letter to the employee. The dismissal is effective from the day on which this letter was sent to the employee and the labour office.

No, generally there is no such obligation. If the conditions for dismissal due to redundancy are met, the employer is not obliged to offer the employee an alternative solution.

However, in some specific individual cases, the courts have concluded that if the employer still needs the work on part-time basis, the employer should first offer the employee this part-time job.

Yes, there is an obligation on the employer to offer the affected employees all possible available jobs, including jobs at a lower level. This obligation, called “repechage obligation”, is not set out in statute, but is built by case law.

Not all jobs can be offered to the affected employees, but this is part of the evaluation made by the court when deciding if the dismissal was fair or not.

There are no specific notification obligations after making the redundancies. Only general notification obligations, which are the same for all employment terminations, apply.

These general notifications must be made within eight days, using the relevant forms, to: (i) the employee’s health insurance company; and (ii) the District Social Security Administration (including the pension insurance record sheet).

If wage deductions were made to satisfy the employee’s debt to a third party, the employer must notify the relevant court (or tax authority case of tax debt), including an account of the deductions.

Yes, the employer must notify the Ministry of Labour and all the Italian authorities, including INPS and the Italian authority against accidents at work (INAIL), that the employees have been made redundant.

This communication must be made in the first five days after the termination. The communication can still be made after the first five days, but the authorities can issue a fine for missing the mandatory deadline.

At the end of the collective redundancy procedure, the employer must also communicate to the local office of the Ministry of Labour the number of employees dismissed, their data, and the selection criteria used for selecting them.

An employee may challenge the validity of a dismissal for redundancy if they consider that the statutory conditions were not met. First, the employee who wishes to remain employed must inform the employer without undue delay after the termination notice that they insist on continuing their employment. Second, the employee must file a lawsuit at the district court of the employer’s seat (residence or registered address). The lawsuit must be made within two months from the date on which the employment should have ended. After the two months, the right to file the lawsuit expires.

If the dismissal for redundancy is found invalid, the employee who wishes to remain employed remains to be employed at the original position under the original conditions and is entitled to a full compensation of salary for the whole time from the invalid termination until work is assigned again, or until the employment is validly terminated (ie, including the time of the court proceedings). The court may reduce the amount of such compensation if, for example, the employee has found another job in the interim, or could have found one.

There’s no statutory authorisation for unions to raise any claims at the court on behalf of employees except for insolvency proceedings (see question 21). However, only attorneys at law can represent employees fully and without limits in any proceedings. Another natural person can be granted a power of attorney in a specific case (not repeatedly). Theoretically, this could be a member or employee of the unions, but this is not a market standard.

An employee can file a claim against the dismissal. The claim would be brought in front of the labour court, and the labour judge is the only person competent to decide on the fairness of the dismissal.

Unions can support the employees when bringing their claims to court (economically, by paying their legal fees), but they cannot act on behalf of the employees.

Yes, it is very common and highly recommended to terminate the employment by mutual agreement when making employees redundant. The termination agreement does not have to state any reasons for termination. However, should the reason be redundancy of the employee, the employee is entitled to statutory severance payment regardless. To motivate the employees to conclude the termination agreement, it is a market standard to offer a higher severance package than the statutory severance payment.

Yes, it is common to use settlement agreements to avoid litigation.

Individual redundancies generally take around two to three months. The organisational change must be prepared, and the termination agreement negotiated or the termination notice given. In case of the notice, the statutory notice period is two months. There’s no statutory notice period requirement in case of agreement, therefore it can be faster. It can also take longer (eg, more complicated cases, restructuring, C-level or other higher managers).

For collective redundancies, the process takes several months (at least three) due to higher demands on preparation, more complicated structuring, the consultation process, and the notification obligation to the Labour Office.

Individual redundancy processes are normally very straightforward:

• if the employee commenced employment before 7 March 2015, the redundancy procedure takes place in front of the local office of the Ministry of Labour and the termination process is normally completed in a maximum of 20 days; or
• if the employee commenced employment after 7 March 2015, the dismissal is administered with a simple letter, so in one day the process is completed.

Some additional extra time may be necessary if the parties intend to negotiate the terms and seek agreement.

The collective redundancy procedure can last up to 75 days (or up to eight and a half months when it has a large social impact; see question 4). It can take less time if the parties find an agreement.

The statutory law does not expressly prohibit certain conduct. However, a redundancy means that the employee’s work is no longer needed and therefore any hiring (internal or external) for the same (or largely the same) position should be avoided (or at least thoroughly considered), especially for the two-month period during which the employee can challenge the validity of the dismissal.

For the first six months after the end of a collective redundancy process, the employer cannot hire anyone under a fixed-term employment contract or through an employment agency. While hiring someone during this period on a permanent employment contract is not prohibited by the law, it can be used as evidence of the employer’s unfair behaviour.

After an individual redundancy process, there is no prohibition on hiring, but any new hires could be considered by the court as evidence of the fact that the redundancy was a sham, making the dismissal unlawful.

The term “restructuring” in Czech law means one of the ways of resolving a company’s bankruptcy in insolvency proceedings. During this process, organisational changes including redundancies may occur. This kind of restructuring does not require unions’ consent; however, consultation may be required. Further, unions may represent the employees in insolvency proceedings.

In Czech law, “restructuring” within the meaning of a business transaction or corporate transformation or changes (i.e. not a type of insolvency proceeding) can also lead to transfer of rights and obligations from the employment relationship to another employer (transfer of undertakings), ie, the employee and their employment will be transferred to a new employer as a result of such transaction. In this case, the employer must inform the unions or other representatives (and if there are none, then the individual employees) and consult at least 30 days in advance:

• the effective date of the transfer;
• reasons for the transfer;
• legal, economic, and social consequences of the transfer for the employees; and
• measures to be taken in relation to the employees.

In case of cross-border mergers or spin-offs, the employer also must: (i) inform the employees or unions of their right to get acquainted with the written merger or spin-off project and give written comments on it; and (ii) generally reach agreement with unions regarding the extent and manner of the right of influence of the employees of the successor corporation (for example, in certain cases by electing a certain number of members of supervisory board in a joint stock company) if the seat of the newly formed entity is supposed to be in the Czechia. Further corporate obligations depend on the form of such restructuring.

However, the described labour law obligations don’t apply in the case of mere ownership change of the employer’s company where this has no direct legal implications for the employees (ie, it isn’t a transfer of undertaking or a termination reason).

Unions and works councils must be consulted in the case of transfers of undertakings – ie, when the employer changes or the TUPE transfer rules apply.

There is no obligation to consult with employees directly – only with unions or employee representatives.

Employees’ consent is not required for major transactions.

In general, employees have limited ability to influence the process of business transactions. The consultation process (see question 21) doesn’t have to result in an agreement with or of the unions. The administrative fine for violation of the consultation process is up to 200,000 Czech Koruna. If there are no unions and the employer breaches its information obligation towards the individual employees (see question 21), the law provides no administrative penalty. In each case, the employee could claim compensation for damage if any damage occurred.

Unions can file an emergency claim to court if the employer fails to consult when the TUPE transfer rules apply. The claim would be to try to stop the transfer until the consultation procedure is correctly followed. Employees also have the right to file a claim against the transfer when the company has failed to conduct the consultation procedure.

If the statutory conditions for transfer are met, the transfer occurs automatically, ie, neither the original employer, the new employer, the employees, nor the unions can avoid the transfer. An employee may prevent their own transfer only by serving termination notice to the employer before the transfer’s effective date, in which case the employment terminates on the day immediately preceding the transfer’s effective date at the latest. If the employer didn’t inform employee at least 30 days in advance (see question 21), the employee may serve their termination notice within two months after the transfer’s effective date – in which case, only a 15-day notice period applies.

Individual rights and obligations are transferred in full to the new employer. The rights and obligations under the original employer’s collective agreement are also transferred to the new employer, but only for the duration of the collective agreement, and for no longer than to the end of the following calendar year.

Transfer itself is not a statutory reason for terminating the employment. However, a restructuring (organisation change) leading to redundancy may happen before, during, or following the transfer. In such a case, the employee has the same rights as in the case of other redundancies.

If the employee terminates the employment by a notice or by an agreement within two months of the effective date of the transfer, they may raise a claim at court that the reason for termination was a substantial deterioration in working conditions caused by the transfer. If the court confirms it, the employee will be entitled to statutory severance (see question 13).

Employees transferred to a new employer in a business transfer are guaranteed the same length of service, accrued holidays and leave, and accrued salary (TFR).

Employees are automatically transferred with the business, and there is no statutory protection against dismissals either before or after the transfer of employment. However, the dismissal must always be grounded on economic, productive, or reorganisational reasons, and the reason of the dismissal can never be the transfer of employment.

It is common that unions and works councils, during the consultations in a TUPE transfer consultation process, ask for a period of “dismissals peace” after the transfer. This is something that can be agreed between the company and the unions during the consultation phase, but it is not mandatory.

Since the transfer of rights and obligations under employment law occurs automatically, it is generally sufficient to follow the legally prescribed procedure for a given business transfer. In addition, it is necessary to comply with the information and consultation obligation (see question 21). Further, general reporting and notification obligations to the state authorities apply.

Transfer of undertakings

The employment is transferred automatically with the business, so there is no procedure to follow. If the company has more than 15 employees, or there are more than 15 employees involved in the transfer of business overall, a mandatory consultation phase with works councils and unions must be carried out at least 25 days before the transfer.

Transfer of individual employment contracts

Employment contracts can be transferred from one employer to another with the employee’s consent.

The working conditions of the transferred employees cannot substantially worsen. If this were to happen and the employee gave termination notice within two months of the transfer, the employee could claim statutory severance (see question 23).

In addition, the employer must comply with the general principle of equal treatment and ensure equal treatment of both the original and new employees in terms of their working conditions, remuneration, and other benefits, training, and the possibility of promotion.

No, there is no statutory rule on harmonising the terms and conditions of the transferring employees with the existing employees, but this is something that can be agreed with the unions during the consultation phase and form part of an agreement.

If the hours, pay, or benefits are agreed in the employment or other contract, then no unilateral change can be made.

Working hours – either statutory weekly working hours apply (40 hours per week) or shorter working hours are agreed. In either case, the employer determines the distribution unilaterally (subject to complying with statutory rules and limits) unless agreed differently.

Salary – if it isn’t agreed in the employment or other contract, the employer unilaterally determines the salary by an internal regulation or by a salary statement.

Benefits – if they aren’t agreed in the employment or other contract, the employer unilaterally determines the benefits by an internal regulation or by a salary statement.

No, it is not possible under Italian law to reduce hours, pay, or benefits of the employees without the employees’ consent, and this can only be done in particular circumstances (for example, a level and salary decrease is allowed only when the aim is to avoid the employees’ termination of employment).

As for employment terms and conditions in general, if these have been agreed in the employment or other contract, they can be changed only by agreement. Validity of express contractual provision to vary the conditions depends on its structure and which conditions it concerns, and therefore there’s no generally applicable answer to the question.

The Labour Code further allows, in certain cases, a change in type of work, workplace, or employer by a temporary transfer of an employee to a different work position, workplace, or employer. Generally, consent is required; however, in certain cases, the employer can (and in very specific cases, has to) make a temporary transfer unilaterally (for example, if the employee is medically unfit to perform the agreed type of work, or to avert imminent danger). The employer must adhere to strict statutory conditions.

No, it is not possible to vary employment terms without the express consent of the employees, and the employer cannot rely on contractual clauses that state this is possible.

Yes, the employee and the employer may agree on certain changes and variations implicitly. However, it is recommended to avoid such situations.

Yes, it can, unless this is something the law requires to be agreed in writing (for example, the change from a full-time agreement to a part-time agreement must be in writing, and the implied conduct will never suffice).

If agreement is required to vary an employment term or condition, then the only option to vary it is an agreement.

The employer would have no options if the employee refuses to agree to the proposed change – the employment terms cannot be varied.

If varied unilaterally in a case where agreement was required, the employee may challenge the variation (depending on the situation, by demanding the employer to: refrain from such conduct, restore the original terms, or compensate the employee for the damage caused by such conduct). Depending on the situation there could also be a risk of administrative penalties.

The variations would not be legally binding, and the employee could file a claim in respect of the variations and ask the court to restore the previous situation.

The Czech parliament is currently debating several changes in the area of labour law. However, none of the currently debated changes should affect the answers above.

Not applicable.