Background information

The employment protection programme Antivirus is designed to help companies to protect jobs. The state will compensate companies – through the Labour Office of the Czech Republic – for wages paid out to employees. This measure will help employers better manage the current situation so that they will not have to resort to layoffs. The wage reimbursement is intended for employers who have to cope with restrictions due to COVID-19 crisis resolutions of the Czech government or whose employees are quarantined. There are two models/regimes of reimbursement depending on the reasons for the obstacle to work (see content of measure).

The government has approved the Antivirus programme to compensate employers’ salary costs from 12 March 2020. The applications for wage compensations refunds have been opened since 6 April, 2020 by the Labour Office. The programme was repeatedly extended to 30th April, 31 May, 31 August, 31 October and to 31 December.

The compensation model is based on the German Kurzarbeit model.

Content of measure

Regime A - Forced limitation or closure of business operation and ordered quarantine.

• In the event of ordered quarantine the employee receives from the employer a wage compensation amounting to 60 % of the average earnings (the first 14 days paid by employer).
• In the event of business closure due to governmental orders the employee receives a wage compensation of 100% of the average earnings from the employer.

A state contribution under Regime A will amount to 80% of the paid wage compensation, including insurance contributions (max. CZK 39,000 (€1,415) per employee and month).

Regime B - Connected economic difficulties (Obstacles to work on the part of an employer due to the connected economic difficulties because of the spread of the coronavirus).

Depending on the type of obstacle the employee receives a wage compensation amounting to 60-100% of the average earnings.

Contribution under Regime B will amount to 60% of the paid wage compensation, including insurance contributions (max. CZK 29,000 (€1052) per employee and month).

Basic subsidy conditions:

• Only employees with employment contract; (Temporary Agreements on work "DPP", "DPC" are excluded).
• Salaries and insurance contributions were regularly paid.
• The employer complies with the Labour Code and does not have overdue debts towards the state.

Use of measure

As of 12 July 2020, 56,963 companies applied to participate in the Antivirus Program, and wages of 719,256 employees have been supported by the Program. Thus, every fifth company that pays social security contributions for at least one employee has applied to participate in the Program. As of 12 July CZK 14.5 billion has been paid out (of which 40% has been allocated in regime A and 60% in regime B). Enterprises from the three most vulnerable sectors (retail/wholesale, accommodation, catering, hospitality, and manufacturing) submitted 55.7% of their applications. The majority of companies are SMEs.

As of March 22, 2021, 70,928 companies had applied to participate in the antivirus program, and the program supported the salaries of 987,149 employees. As of that date, CZK 34.8 billion was paid out.

As of June 28, 2021, 74,211 companies had applied to participate in the antivirus program, and the program supported the salaries of 1,068,632 employees. As of that date, CZK 48.7 billion was paid out, of which CZK 18.5 billion in 2021.

As of August 2021, a total of 1,073,133 employees had been supported by the Antivirus program.

On average, the MoLSA helped pay almost 4.5 million in wage compensation. For the average supported employee, the MoLSA, therefore, contributed to more than four of his monthly salaries. The Antivirus program thus helped to keep the job more than every 3rd employee (37%) in the private sector. Due to their age, more than 22% of supported employees belonged to the group of employees at risk of unemployment.

The Labor Office concluded a support agreement with every 4th company which, according to the Czech Social Security Administration, pays insurance premiums for its employees (74,278 out of a total of 279,917 companies in the Czech Republic). As part of the concluded agreement, the company could then apply for a contribution to pay wage compensation in individual months. The Antivirus program has mainly supported small and micro-businesses. Specifically, 86% of companies were among 25 employees. Enterprises with 100 or more employees accounted for only 5% of the support. From the sectoral point of view, the supported companies were the most represented companies from the manufacturing industry (17%), from the accommodation, catering, and hospitality.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Unknown	Unknown

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Both social partners were consulted.

Views and reactions

No information.

Sources

• 31 March 2020: ANTIVIRUS -employment retention (www.mpsv.cz)
• 02 April 2020: Antivirus - support for employment (www.mpsv.cz)
• 04 April 2020: Targeted Programme for Employment Support: “Antivirus” HANDBOOK FOR EMPLOYERS (www.mpsv.cz)
• 01 July 2020: Certain Aspects of Antivirus´ Regime C taxes legal world news case law in brief flash news Certain aspects of Antivirus‘ Regime C taxes legal world news case law in brief flash news Certain aspects of Antivirus‘ Regime C (danovky.cz)
• 16 July 2020: Stav čerpání Programů Antivirus A a B k 12. 7. 2020 (www.mpsv.cz)
• 22 February 2021: the Resolution of the Government of the Czech Republic No. 186 (apps.odok.cz)
• 22 March 2021: Status of drawing of the Antivirus program as of March 22, 2021 (www.mpsv.cz)