Transparentnost odměňování – 3. část – systémy odměňování

The proposed amendment to the Labour Code, which transposes the EU Directive on pay transparency into Czech law, introduces a range of new measures and obligations. One of these is the obligation for all employers to create and formalize remuneration systems ensuring equal pay for equal work or work of equal value.

The amendment introduces two systems – a remuneration system regulating pay for work and a system for providing other monetary payments and benefits of monetary value. Employers will be required to establish both systems through internal regulations or collective agreements.

The first system is the remuneration system related to pay for work, i.e., wages, salaries, or remuneration under agreements. Employers will be required to create a system that includes how employees are remunerated, particularly the form, components, and gradation of wages, salaries, and remuneration under agreements. The system must also include the classification of jobs performed by the employer into groups according to their value. Pay for work must then be paid to employees in accordance with this system.

The classification of jobs into categories contained in the remuneration system should be based on the evaluation of the types of work, not on the work performed by a specific employee. The evaluation of jobs must be based on legally defined criteria, which are complexity, responsibility, and arduousness.

If employers provide employees with other monetary payments and benefits of monetary value in addition to pay for work, they will be required to create a corresponding system. Other monetary payments and benefits of monetary value should include, within the meaning of the Directive, any payments made to employees in connection with employment, such as annual bonuses, thirteenth salaries, Christmas bonuses, or benefits from employee stock option plans (so-called ESOPs). The system of monetary payments must contain objective and non-discriminatory criteria on the basis of which these payments are provided to employees. However, the system does not need to describe payments whose amount is directly set by legal regulations, unless the employer deviates from this amount.

Together, both systems create an internally structured framework for employee remuneration. Their purpose is primarily to ensure transparent, predictable, and comparable remuneration based on objective and gender-neutral criteria. At the same time, these systems form the basis for further measures and obligations arising from the amendment. One of these is the information obligation, which we will introduce in the fourth part of our series.

Authors:

Kateřina Suchanová

Matěj Šimpach