Unreliable Employer – are you affected by the new legislation?

A quite controversial amendment to the Alien Act introducing several new standpoints towards employment of foreigners from non-EU countries aiming to stay and work in the Czech Republic has finally been adopted by the Parliament.

The amendment addresses foreign applicants for employee cards that will not be issued by the Ministry of Interior should the applicants’ future employers prove to be unreliable ones, i.e. those who, among others, fail to meet their tax payment deadlines, do not pay health insurance and social security contributions or have been fined for illegal employment of foreigners.

Also, a new type of card of an employee transferred internally within a company is to be introduced and to serve the function of both work and stay permits for managers, specialists and trainees. It, compared with the “regular” employee cards brings about several advantageous features, such as employers being entitled to offer jobs directly to foreigners without advertising them (often unsuccessfully) to domestic job-seekers first or the length of the stay and work permit validity being prolonged to 3 years (1 year for trainees). The card is intended for current employees of a company who are scheduled to move temporarily to the Czech Republic to perform their duties for the local branch or subsidiary who the new scheme is designed for. The card, therefore, represents a simplified procedure of employees’ relocation.