The Ministry of Health has introduced important changes concerning occupational health checks in the Czech Republic. The new rules took effect as of 1 January 2023 and have reduced bureaucracy for employers:
- Cancellation of periodic medical checks for work that carries no risk
- New requirements for the medical check request forms
- Cancellation of extraordinary medical checks after maternity/parental leave
- Driving a motor vehicle is no longer a professional risk
- Entry and exit medical checks
Cancellation of periodic medical checks for work that carries no risk
Periodic medical checks are no longer obligatory for employees who do work that carries no risk. However, both the employee and the employer can require such medical check. In that case, the employer must accommodate the employee’s request (and issue a medical check request form for this purpose), and the employee must undergo the medical check at the employer’s request. The frequency of periodic medical checks remains the same.
The Ministry of Health believes that the medical checks for mainly office-based employees are more of a formality. Doctors usually issue medical reports without carrying out a proper examination. In addition, every health-insured adult has the right to a preventive medical check every two years at their general practitioner. Thus, there is no need to duplicate such medical checks in the work environment.
This change should save hundreds of millions of crowns a year that employers could, for example, use to introduce preventive health promotion programmes. Such programmes would be able to effectively detect chronic diseases at an early stage.
This article was written by CMS partner Tomáš Matĕjovský, senior associate Jakub Kabát, and associates Daniel Szpyrc and Jana Turečková, and was first published on CMS Law-Now on January 3, 2023, available here.