An employment contract is the most common legal act leading to an employment relationship. The employment contract is concluded at the moment the contracting parties agree on all the essentials of the employment contract (i.e. the content of the contract). The employment contract must always be in writing and each party must receive one copy.
According to Section 34(1) of the Labour Code, the essentials of the employment contract are:
- the type of work the worker is to perform for the employer,
- the place or places of work in which the work is to be performed,
- the date of commencement of employment.
I. The agreement on the type of work defines the range of work tasks the worker undertakes to perform. In principle, the worker is not obliged to perform work of another type, except in cases where the Labour Code exceptionally allows the transfer of workers to another job (see Section 41 of the Labour Code). The type of work can be agreed narrowly or more broadly, the Labour Code does not provide further guidance guide or any catalogue of jobs. However, it should not be defined so broadly as to allow the employer to assign any work to the worker. Legislation also allows the type of work to be agreed by specifying more than one type of work in the employment contract. The agreed type of work usually requires a more detailed description of work tasks for individual workers, the ‘scope of work’. The scope of work is a unilateral order of the employer that defines the workers' individual tasks within the agreed type of work.
II. The agreed place of work or places of work determine(s) the scope of the employer's dispositional right towards the worker. It is not possible to transfer a worker to work in a different place without the worker's consent. The place of work can be determined very narrowly (e.g. a specific workplace), just as it can be determined very broadly (the territory of the Czech Republic). The place of work should meet the needs of the employer and be proportionate to the nature of the work. Outside the agreed place of work, the worker is obliged to perform work through a business trip (see Section 42 of the Labour Code). In order to avoid circumvention of the legal regulation dealing with travel allowances for workers, the Labour Code stipulates the requirement to designate a regular workplace for the purposes of travel allowances.
III. An employment relationship arises on the date of commencement of work. From the day of commencement of work, the worker is thus obliged to perform the work and the employer is obliged to assign the work. The day of commencement of work can also be arranged on a day of rest (e.g. 1 January).
The employment contract may stipulate, for example:
- a trial period,
- the salary amount,
- shorter weekly working hours (part-time work),
- fixed-term employment, etc.