OTHER IMPORTANT AMENDMENTS TO THE LABOR CODE
The provision for term labor contracts is supplemented by the introduction of new paragraphs to article 68 LC. They shall be used as an attempt to overcome the unequal position of employees under labor contract for indefinite period and employees working under term labor contracts. A new ban is introduced for the discrimination attitude with employees’ right and obligations. Term labor contracts cannot be used as grounds for the existence of more unfavorable labor conditions. This shall be relevant only for employees on one and the same or similar job positions and if there is no such one, the labor status of employees engaged under indefinite labor contracts shall prevail. In all cases, the employer undertakes to easily provide information for vacant job positions that could be engaged under indefinite period as well as to facilitate the access of employees engaged under term contracts to professional education.
The scope of employees that cannot work overtime is extended. There is a ban on overtime employment of persons working under specific conditions where risk for their lives and health cannot be removed or decreased. The ban refers only to work under the same or other similar specific conditions as well as to persons specified in a statutory act or Council of Ministers decree. Before the Code amendments, this ban referred to vehicle drivers and employees engaged in dangerous or hazardous to the health conditions specified in a deliberate normative act.
The amendments set in an imperative manner timeframes for overtime employment as well as for the order of work exceeding the maximum duration. Working hours for underage persons including the aggregate of basic working hours and overtime duration is limited to 40 hours per week and cannot exceed these timeframes. Unlike the previous edition of article 113 LC, the duration of working hours for adults is fixed to 48 hours per week. An employee aged 18 and over, however, may work overtime but only with the prior written consent of the employer to that effect and as long as the mandatory rest between two working days and weekly rest is not affected. The employer shall maintain a data base with information for employees working overtime above 48 hours per week and shall provide such information to the Executive Agency “Major Labor Inspectorate”. The controlling authority, on the other hand, shall be entitled to restrict or prohibit employment above the fixed weekly duration of working hours for employees working overtime. New reorganization forms for the employer are introduced whereas the labor relation with the employee is preserved (article 123 LC). The first hypothesis relates to change in the legal and organizational form of the company. The most frequently encountered case of similar change is reorganization of commercial companies pursuant to section III of Chapter 16 of the Commercial Act. Employees’ labor relations shall be kept also in the events of assignment or transfer of activity from one company to another, including transfer of tangible assets. With the transfer of the company, the company-assignee shall assume employer’s obligations for assignor’s employees which job positions are related to the assigned activity.
Certain principles for inadmissibility of discrimination to employees are embedded in the working hours’ provision. It prohibits unequal treatment of part-time employees. The employer undertakes to provide part-time employees a possibility to switch on a full-time employment, and vice versa. He is further obligated to provide information on available full- and part-time job positions to employees’ representatives under article 7, para 2 LC. Furthermore, the employer undertakes to coordinate in advance his intention to initiate unilaterally part-time working hours in the event of decrease in the work volume.
The new amendments to the Labor Code, particularly article 139a, provide the employer an option to fix floating working hours for certain job positions. The realization of this right, however, is bound by an obligation for conduct of consultancies with the representatives under article 7, para 2 LC. A new moment related to floating working hours’ issues is the introduction of additional 15-minutes’ rest after the end of the regular working hours. Work during the rest based on employer’s order or knowledge and without opposing to it shall be considered overtime.
The new provision of article 140 introduces specific rules for night employment. Paragraph 1 thereof defines the scope of persons falling under the special regime. Those are employees whose regular working hours include at least three hours of night employment as well as shift employees having one three-hour night shift. An obligatory prerequisite for rise of labor relations with such employees is the advance medical examination. Night employees are also periodically examined by doctors pursuant to article 287 LC. Article 140a, para 3 LC introduces special grounds for labor readjustment consisting of a three-element factual composition:
1. Night employment;
2. Health deterioration of an employee as a result of his night employment;
3. Ascertainment of the deteriorated health by a competent health body.
In the event of cumulative presence of those three conditions, the employer is obligated to switch the employee on a suitable day employment or readjust him.
With regard to the issues related to night employment, we should also mention one more new obligation for the employer: he shall provide the Executive Agency “Major Labor Inspectorate” information for night employees, number of worked hours during the night and secured health and safety labor conditions.