Employees with children are entitled to reduced working hours

On 9July 2014, the Supreme Court issued an interesting decision (No. 21 Cdo 1821/2013) concerning Sec. 241 Subsec. 2 of the Labour Code. According to this provision, if an employee looking after a child under fifteen years of age requests to reduce the number of working hours or some other suitable modification of full-time working hours, the employer shall satisfy such request, unless serious operational reasons prevent him to do so.

The Supreme Court held that when deciding whether serious operational reasons occur, the impact of the short-time working on the employer's operation must be assessed.

However, not all operational reasons constitute a reason for denial of the employee's request. The employer would be generally allowed to deny the request if its operation was impeded, disturbed or seriously endangered by the modification of employees working hours. Some operational reasons can be solved for instance by hiring new employee(s) to work part-time.

The serious operational reasons must be given at the time when the employer decides about the employee's request. Furthermore, the employer has to be able to prove their existence before court.