Agency employment in IT: how it works and what the law requires

Agency employment lets a company bring a person, such as an IT specialist, into its own team and direct their work without employing them. The employer remains the employment agency. Employment agencies reported 238,563 employees assigned to user companies for 2025, of whom 89,713 were Czech nationals. A person assigned to several user companies is counted once for each, so the figure is not the number of different people. This overview is based on legislation as worded on 31 October 2026.

Source: Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Employment agencies (in Czech)

Who is who in agency employment?

Agency employment involves three parties:

Only someone with an employment contract or an agreement to perform work (dohoda o pracovní činnosti) can be assigned. An agreement to complete a job (dohoda o provedení práce) is not enough (Labour Code, Section 307a). The user company may give the worker tasks, direct and check their work, and is responsible for health and safety at work. It may not, however, act legally on the agency's behalf (Section 309(1)).

Source: Labour Code, Act No. 262/2006 Coll. (in Czech)

What does the agency need?

Only an agency licensed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs may provide agency employment. The law sets several conditions for the licence:

• A responsible representative with relevant education and experience, who may hold this role for only one agency and must be employed by it for at least 20 hours a week unless they sit on its statutory body (Employment Act, Section 60(10)).
• A deposit of CZK 1,000,000 paid into the ministry's account (Section 60b).
• No arrears, which the ministry checks at least once every six months (Section 60(14)).
• No fines for serious offences: neither the applicant nor its management may have received a final fine for specified offences in the past three years (Section 60(13)).

A first licence is issued for three years, a repeat licence for an indefinite period (Section 62(3)). The ministry revokes a licence if, for example, the agency enables illegal work or assigns nobody for two years (Section 63(2)). The agency can then obtain a new licence after three years at the earliest (Section 63(5)).

You can check whether an agency holds a licence in the public MPSV register (linked in the sources).

Workers pay the agency nothing for agency work, and deductions from wages in favour of the agency or the user company are prohibited (Employment Act, Section 58).

Sources: Employment Act, Act No. 435/2004 Coll. (in Czech), Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Employment agency search (in Czech)

What must the agreement with the agency contain?

The user company concludes a written temporary assignment agreement with the agency (Labour Code, Section 308). Among other things, it must include:

1. details of the assigned employee,
2. type of work, including the required qualifications,
3. duration of the assignment,
4. place of work and start date,
5. working and pay conditions of a comparable employee of the user company,
6. conditions for ending the assignment early, which must not be agreed solely in the user company's favour,
7. number and date of the agency's licence.

The worker then receives a written assignment instruction from the agency with details of the user company, the place and duration of work and who their manager will be (Section 309(2)). If the user company ends the assignment early, it must also notify the worker, and the assignment ends no earlier than the 14th day after delivery (Section 309(3)).

Source: Labour Code, Act No. 262/2006 Coll. (in Czech)

What do comparable conditions mean?

The working and pay conditions of an agency employee must not be worse than those that a comparable employee of the user company has or would have. The law places this duty jointly on the agency and the user company (Section 309(5)).

How the labour inspectorate assesses this is set out in the Chief Labour Inspector's methodological guideline No. 5/2025:

• The comparison is with an employee of the same user company doing the same work, meaning work of the same or comparable complexity, responsibility and effort. Other companies in the group do not count.
• If the user company has no comparable employee, what matters is the conditions it would offer if it hired the person directly.
• Pay conditions include basic pay, rewards, premiums, bonuses, the 13th-month salary and allowances. Contributions from the social fund or to pension savings, for example, are not compared.

For IT roles this means in practice that the user company must give the agency the pay and working conditions of a comparable employee when the assignment agreement is drawn up.

Sources: Labour Code, Act No. 262/2006 Coll. (in Czech), State Labour Inspection Office, Comparable conditions in agency employment (in Czech)

How long can an assignment last?

The same employee can be assigned to the same user company for no more than 12 consecutive calendar months. The exceptions are when the employee asks for a longer assignment, or when it covers maternity, paternity or parental leave (Section 309(6)).

The law also prohibits assigning to a user company a person who is employed by it at the same time, or who has already worked for it through another agency in the same month (Section 307b). The law sets no quota on how many agency employees a user company may have. The scope of agency employment can only be limited by a collective agreement at the user company (Section 309(8)).

Source: Labour Code, Act No. 262/2006 Coll. (in Czech)

What does the labour inspectorate check?

The State Labour Inspection Office checks both agencies and user companies. At user companies, its 2026 programme focuses on working hours and how they are recorded, pay, the existence and content of the assignment agreement and the written instruction, comparable conditions and the ending of assignments. A user company that breaches its obligations faces a fine of up to CZK 1,000,000 (Labour Inspection Act, Section 33a(2)).

The law is stricter on hiring out workers without a licence. This is disguised employment mediation, an offence committed by whoever hires out the workers and also by the company that allows it, and it carries a fine of CZK 50,000 to CZK 10,000,000 (Employment Act, Section 140(1)(f) and (4)(f)).

Sources: State Labour Inspection Office, Annual inspection programme (in Czech), Labour Inspection Act, Act No. 251/2005 Coll. (in Czech), Employment Act, Act No. 435/2004 Coll. (in Czech)

When does agency employment make sense in IT?

It suits a temporary need where you want to direct the work yourself. We compare when an employment contract or a contractor is the better choice in the article Contractor, employee or agency worker?.

Summary

• An agency employee works under the user company's instructions but is employed by an agency licensed by MPSV. Among other things, the agency must have a deposit of CZK 1,000,000 and a responsible representative.
• The user company and the agency conclude a written assignment agreement and are jointly responsible for comparable conditions.
• An assignment to the same user company lasts no more than 12 consecutive months, with some exceptions. The law sets no quota on agency employees.

AZ EXPERTUM holds a licence for agency employment. If you need an IT specialist in your own team for a limited period, see how agency employment works with us, or write to us directly.

Status as of 31 October 2026. This article is general information based on legislation, not legal advice.

• agency employment
• Labour Code
• Employment Act