Employer-employee relations in the cultural sector are regulated under the Labour Code – Act No. 262/2006 Coll. This new Labour Code came into force on 1 January 2007 to immediate criticism. Thus, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs prepared technical amendments to the Labour Code No. 362/2007, which eliminated any problematic issues or errors.
On 1 January 2014 additional changes to the Labour Code came into effect, notably in relation to the adoption of the new Civil Code. In addition to technical changes in response to new terms used in the Civil Code some important practical changes were also introduced.
The new Civil Code affects the Act No. 435/2004 Coll. on Employment, which deals with topics such as eliminating discrimination, the employment of foreigners, state employment policy, retraining, and it also regulates the activity of children while participating in artistic or cultural activities for a legal entity or an individual. A number of changes came into effect on 1 January 2014.
Salaries and compensation for employees in the cultural sector are covered by government regulations that review salaries in the public sector (the main criteria are education and age) and they issue a catalogue of jobs in which artistic jobs and other professions in the field of culture have their set place.
The Labour Code regulates the legal relationship between employer and employee in connection with an employee’s performance of work for an employer, but it does not apply to persons who are self-employed. On some points the law indirectly affects the self-employed, for instance, with regard to business travel abroad, through the Income Tax Act.
The conditions for the entry and residence of foreigners on the territory of the Czech Republic are regulated by the Act on the Residence of Aliens on the Territory of the Czech Republic (Act No. 326/1999 Coll., or the Act on Aliens). The latest amendment to the Act on Aliens came into effect in July 2019. The amendment, among other things, set up the terms of three government projects and modes of economic migration: the migration of key workers, scientific workers, and highly qualified workers. Quotas for economic migration from selected countries were introduced and a new type of special work visa for 1 year was established. Some conditions for the residence of students and researchers were also simplified.
Council Decision (EU) 2022/382 of 4 March 2022 established, for the first time in the history of the EU, that a mass influx of displaced persons within the meaning of Article 5 of Directive 2001/55/EC has occurred and introduces temporary protection (on a pan-European level). Act No. 65/2022 Coll. (referred to as Lex Ukraine), on certain measures in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of Ukraine caused by the invasion of the Russian Federation troops, responds to the launch of the institute of temporary protection and the situation that has arisen.
Lex Ukraine consists of three standards to assist refugees[1] from Ukraine. The law proposed by the Ministry of the Interior regulates the allocation of temporary protection, the legal status of refugees and access to health care, the law proposed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs regulates employment, social security and children’s groups, and the law proposed by the Ministry of Education regulates access to education.
The laws entered into force on 21 March 2022. They are adopted for a period of one year and will expire on 31 March 2023. In June 2022, an amendment was approved that tightens the provision of humanitarian benefits to refugees from Ukraine, regulates the procedure for granting temporary protection, and allows the government to regulate the submission of applications for residency permits by Russian and Belarusian citizens even outside of an emergency (see also 2.5.1).
[1] Refugees or arrivals from Ukraine in the context of this document means holders of temporary protection granted in the CR.
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