From January, Refund of Energy Expenses for Remote Workers

From the new year, we will see some changes to facilitate smart working employees.

Mainly it is meant to be a reimbursement of costs incurred by working from home: expenses for heating, electricity and water mainly.

The minimum fee is CZK 2.80 per working hour. It is not part of the salary, so it is out of contribution payments. In addition, this amount will be decided year to year by the ministry by decree and is based on data provided by the Czech Statistical Office about the costs per adult in an average Czech family.

In addition, the text requires employer and employee to make an agreement about the details of remote work: location from which work is performed, scope, time conditions (hours and on-call), way of communications, task assignment, and cost refund.

Until the Covid-19 pandemic, smart working was seen as a company benefit; now it is guaranteed to workers in all EU countries by the Work-Life Balance (WLB) Directive.

This is for workers to make it easier to take care of their children and loved ones.

According to a recent survey conducted for Raiffeisenbank, about 29 percent of Czech employees have the option of working remotely, but only 18 percent of them take advantage of this.

Some employees prefer to be on the workplace, for example, due to lack of space at home or poor connection.

Experts say the energy crisis could lead some companies to reintroduce smart working for some workers.

For example, Czech universities have already announced that they are considering reintroducing distance remote teaching because of high energy costs.