About Employment

 

The employer’s procedure for recruiting employees from abroad

If you want to employ foreigners from third countries, you must first obtain permission from the locally competent labor office to obtain employees from abroad, which is issued in an administrative proceeding and is subject to an appeal.

WHO IS A PARTICIPANT IN THE PROCEEDINGS

The party to the proceedings is a legal or natural person who intends to recruit employees from abroad for vacancies for which job seekers cannot be accepted. For the purposes of employment, a natural person (foreigner) who is not a citizen of the Czech Republic or a citizen of the EU / EEA, Switzerland or a member of his or her family is considered an employee from abroad.

VACANCY REPORTS

The employer is obliged to report vacancies to labor offices. A vacancy means a position that the employer has newly created or that has become vacant and which cannot be filled for a long time by citizens of the Czech Republic, other European Union countries and persons with permanent residence in the Czech Republic. The characteristics of the vacancy reported to the employment office (hereinafter referred to as the Labor Office) must be identical to the characteristics of the position for which the employer intends to recruit employees or foreigners. In the case of employment of a foreigner, the employer is obliged to offer this foreigner the same working and wage conditions usual for a Czech citizen in the same job classification according to valid legal regulations, or in accordance with collective agreements or employment contracts.

APPLICATION FOR PERMISSION TO RECRUIT EMPLOYEES FROM ABROAD

The first step in processing an employee recruitment permit is to apply. An application for permission to recruit employees from abroad is submitted by the employer at the Labor Office at the place of work of the future employee (see the  employer’s application to recruit employees from abroad for vacancies )

The application contains:

  • identification data of the employer (name, registered office and identification number, if it is a legal entity, or name, surname, birth number and place of business, if it is a natural person)
  • data on the workplace and its characteristics (type of work, place of work, basic information on working and wage conditions)
  • number of required foreigners,
  • expected period of employment,
  • the professional composition of future employees, including qualification requirements
  • accommodation address and
  • any additional information from the employer.

ANNEXES TO THE APPLICATION

The employer submits an officially certified copy of the document confirming the business license (extract from the Commercial Register, trade license, or other confirmation of the organization’s statute, eg the founding document of the social organization, etc.). Furthermore, the Labor Office may request from the employer officially certified copies of the confirmation of the provision of accommodation for the expected period of employment, the method of securing funds for the trip to the state of permanent residence upon termination of employment, the draft employment contract.

ADMINISTRATIVE FEE

In accordance with the Act on Administrative Fees, the submission of an employer’s application for the issue of a permit to acquire foreigners in the amount of CZK 2,000 is subject to the administrative fee (see item 9 letter b / annex).

APPLICATION DEADLINE

The decision is issued in administrative proceedings, so it is governed by the general regulation on the course of administrative proceedings (Administrative Procedure Code) 500/2004 Coll. § 71. The Labor Office is obliged to issue a decision without undue delay, if this is not possible, within 30 days of the commencement of the proceedings. If this is a particularly complex case, the deadline is extended by up to another 30 days.

PERMISSION TO RECRUIT EMPLOYEES FROM ABROAD

The basic condition for issuing a permit to obtain employees from abroad is the situation on the labor market and the fact that it is a vacancy which, given the required qualifications or a temporary shortage of vacancies, cannot be filled otherwise. The competent authority for issuing this permit is always the ÚP in whose district the foreigner will be employed. The employer’s permit to recruit employees from abroad is issued by the Labor Office for a definite period of time, and this permit entitles the employer to recruit foreigners to the specific place specified in the application.

ELIGIBILITY TO EMPLOY FOREIGNERS

If the employer has received permission from the Labor Office to recruit employees from abroad, he may employ a foreigner only if this foreigner has:

  • valid work permit from the labor office according to the place of work ,
  • valid residence visa for the purpose of employment ,
  • an employment contract concluded in writing for a period that is in accordance with the period specified by the Labor Office for the decision on the foreigner’s employment permit

and provided that the employer has registered him for the payment of social and health insurance benefits.

NOTIFICATION OBLIGATION

The employer is obliged to notify the occupation of a vacancy by a foreigner to the Labor Office within 10 calendar days.

The employer is also obliged to inform the relevant employment office in writing that the foreigner who has been issued a work permit:

  • did not start work or
  • terminated his employment before the expiry of the period for which the permit was issued.

This information obligation must be fulfilled by the employer no later than 10 days from the day when the foreigner was to take up the job or when he terminated his employment ( see the  Employer’s Notice on Early Termination of Employment of a Foreigner in the Czech Republic ) .