Atypical forms of employment in the Czech Republic

Employers in the Czech Republic do not yet take full advantage of the potential offered by flexible forms of employment. Although many employers use some atypical forms of employment, they do so only for a small number of their employees.

Atypical forms of employment are used infrequently in the Czech Republic, compared with other countries. Czech employees only tend to be interested in full-time, permanent employment, as flexible forms of employment often pay less and offer less security. According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) from the first quarter of 2004 (44Kb Excel file; in Czech), 9.7% of employees in the Czech Republic currently work on the basis of a fixed-term contract, while just 4.9% work on a part-time basis.

However, the low proportion of employees in flexible employment (temporary workers, employment agency workers, workers on fixed-term contracts, telework, working from home, etc) is also due to the fact that employers generally do not offer these options. The only exception is in the services sector (multinational chains of stores, telecommunications, post services, etc), where there is a shortage of employees who are willing to work part time.

In 2000, the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs (RILSA ) carried out a quantitative study among employers, with the aim of documenting the status and use of atypical forms of employment. It sought to uncover, at least partly, the motivation behind the introduction of flexible work forms within companies. The study featured 441 organisations with a total of 90,000 employees.

Part-time work

Of the 90,000 employees surveyed, 5.6% were employed on a part-time basis. The majority of organisations (57.6%) reported having at least one worker employed on a part-time basis at the time of the survey. Although the proportion of employees working on a part-time basis was very low, 65% of the companies considered the level of part-time employment in their company to be appropriate for their needs. Some 15% described their current use of part-time work as excessive in relation to their demands, while 30% agreed that they could make more use of this form of employment.

The majority of part-time workers surveyed were employed in state-run or cooperative organisations. Only 38% responded positively to the question of whether some form of state support would contribute to increasing part-time employment levels.

Source: Zamykalová, L. and Polívka, M., Making appropriate conditions to enforce flexible organisation of work and working time as part of employment policy, RILSA, Prague, 2000 (13.2MB PDF, in Czech)

Part-time employment is more common among people working in larger cities (with over 100,000 inhabitants), in services and in lower-qualified positions. Data about the age profile of part-time workers are available from the LFS and can be seen in Table 2.

Source: Czech Statistical Office (CZSO), LFS

Temporary agency work

The practice of hiring temporary employees through agencies is not prevalent in the Czech Republic, although it is expected to grow in the future. Recent legislation (1 October 2004), in which temporary agency work is defined and agency workers are assured of equal treatment to other employees in the user company, has helped to prepare for this expansion.

Although the research results apply to the situation, prior to this legislation, it is unlikely to have changed very much in the meantime. Only 10% of the organisations surveyed had ever hired workers employed by an agency and only 14 companies reported that they used such services regularly (3.2%). Temporary agency work is used primarily in large, foreign-owned enterprises (see Figure) to recruit low-skilled labour.

Working from home

About 13% of the organisations surveyed allow some form of telework. However, only 4% reported that their employees used computers while working from home. The option of working from home is offered primarily in small companies with no more than 50 employees. The study also highlighted that such work tends to be associated with administrative activities or simple manual activities, such as the manufacture of costume jewellery, stringing beads, correspondence services, or packaging. Companies that offer this option do so primarily in response to the needs of their employees. Other reasons include lower costs or increased employee performance, but these were reported only as peripheral benefits.

Since the fall of communism, the Czech business environment has undergone a striking transformation, with new challenges both for employees and employers. Employers have placed greater demands on the labour force, not only in terms of quantity, but also in terms of quality, particularly with respect to education levels and adaptability. Although there are obvious benefits for employers in establishing a flexible workforce, managers are still at the learning stage with regard to introducing atypical forms of employment within their personnel strategy. Examples of good practice are evident in foreign companies that are active in the Czech market and that have already acquired wide-ranging experience in their home countries in using such forms of employment.

Further information

Further EU level research is available on the Foundation’s website concerning employment status and part-time work.