12 July 2024

Draft amendments to the Labour Code - seniority

On 9 July 2024, a draft bill on amendments to the Labour Code (UD59), dated 4 July 2024, was posted on the website of the Government Legislation Centre.

The draft extends the assumptions (which we wrote about here) to include the following:

  • periods of employment are to include:
    • training at a doctoral school,
    • receiving a sports scholarship,
    • drawing unemployment benefit,
    • running an individual farm or working on such a farm;
  • employee entitlements resulting from the inclusion of the aforementioned periods are to vest from the date of the Act’s entry into force.

The proposed changes will affect the company seniority and general seniority of employees. For employers, this may mean, among other things, the need to respect longer notice periods or disburse higher severance payments.

The draft is currently in the review phase. Further legislative work on it should be followed as the law is scheduled to enter into force on 1 January 2026.

Text of the draft