On September 12, 2023, the Czech Parliament adopted an amendment to the Labor Code, which will become effective already from October 1, 2023 (unfortunately, employers will have very limited time to prepare for the new regulation). The main purpose of the amendment is to implement the European directives on the work-life balance of parents and carers (No. 2019/1158) and on transparent and predictable working conditions (No. 2019/1152) which were to be implemented by member states in August 2022. But there are further changes that should address problems in the daily operation of employers.

On September 22, 2023, the amendment to the Polish Code of Civil Procedure entered into force that significantly reinforces the protection of employees who benefit from special protections against dissolution of employment. As a result, an employer can no longer dismiss a specially protected employee until a final judgment is passed, which can, due to lengthy court proceedings, take several years.

Under Hungarian private law, legal relationships aimed at performing various tasks on the basis of instructions are generally based on either employment contracts regulated by Act I of 2012 of the Labor Code (Labor Code) or services agreements governed by Act V of 2013 of the Civil Code.

For more than half a year, Slovenia has been intensively preparing amendments to the Employment Relationship Act (ZDR-1), which is usually called the “little workers’ constitution.” Like any other exemplary EU country, we transpose and implement all EU regulations and directives into our legal order in as timely and effective manner as possible. Unfortunately, this often does not solve the most acute problems of the labor market and the adopted legal solutions do not always help the economy to achieve higher productivity.

In light of the constantly and rapidly changing world climate, there was a need for changes to provisions in labor law that have not been updated for years, namely on minimum wages and payment of salary.

The statutory right to vacation originally arose from the employer’s duty of care for its employees. The Austrian Vacation Act of 1976 is a manifestation of this duty of care. It provides for five – with some seniority six – weeks of vacation for each working year. The law also expressly states that vacation should be used up, if possible, by the end of the year in which it was accrued. However, the employer and employee must agree on the specific leave days. In general, this means that neither the employee can take off for vacation unilaterally, nor can the employer impose it. Therefore, if there is no agreement on the actual use of vacation, this leads to an accumulation of vacation days.