Rights and obligations of parties to an employment relationship during the COVID-19 pandemic

The article discusses the most important regulations regarding the rights and obligations of employers and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, both for employees performing remote work and employees who, due to the nature of their work, must perform it at the workplace. In order to counteract COVID-19, the employer may instruct the employee to perform, for a fixed period, work specified in the employment contract, outside the place of its permanent performance (remote work). In the current situation, in principle, the employer may, whenever an employee performs remote work, order it for 180 days from the date of the Act’s entry into force. There appear a number of problems in the field of labour law when working remotely, including how to comply with OSH regulations, how to proceed in the event of an accident at work or control of working time. An employer may commission remote work to only part of the employees, e.g. those who have children. Yet, this should be justified by objective circumstances. The employer should take all available precautions, such as ordering remote work or even temporary closure of an enterprise, if his employees are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in order to enable State Sanitary Inspection or physicians or himself to take action. During the epidemic, the employer also has the right to carry out preventive checks of employees’ temperature. There is no legal basis for employers to send their employees to quarantine themselves. The employer may also not allow an employee to work without a preliminary and control examination. The last part of the article deals with the so-called crisis agreements concluded with employee representatives.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31

The article discusses the most important regulations regarding the rights and obligations of employers and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, both for employees performing remote work and employees who, due to the nature of their work, must perform it at the workplace. In order to counteract COVID-19, the employer may instruct the employee to perform, for a fixed period, work specified in the employment contract, outside the place of its permanent performance (remote work). In the current situation, in principle, the employer may, whenever an employee performs remote work, order it for 180 days from the date of the Act’s entry into force. There appear a number of problems in the field of labour law when working remotely, including how to comply with OSH regulations, how to proceed in the event of an accident at work or control of working time. An employer may commission remote work to only part of the employees, e.g. those who have children. Yet, this should be justified by objective circumstances. The employer should take all available precautions, such as ordering remote work or even temporary closure of an enterprise, if his employees are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in order to enable State Sanitary Inspection or physicians or himself to take action. During the epidemic, the employer also has the right to carry out preventive checks of employees’ temperature. There is no legal basis for employers to send their employees to quarantine themselves. The employer may also not allow an employee to work without a preliminary and control examination. The last part of the article deals with the so-called crisis agreements concluded with employee representatives.

ASJC: 3308, JEL: K31