Agency employment of foreign workers in Czechia: the deposit and the barred jobs

A Czech work agency may temporarily assign a foreign national holding an employee card, an EU Blue Card, or a work permit only to job types that government regulation has not excluded. Operating as an agency requires a deposit of CZK 500,000 lodged with the Labour Office, as MPSV sets out. Responsibility for conditions on site sits with the user firm as well as the agency.

The CZK 500,000 deposit and why it exists

MPSV requires a work agency to lodge CZK 500,000 in a dedicated account of the Labour Office of the Czech Republic. The money is returned once the mediation licence lapses, so it is security rather than a fee. The stated purpose is direct: to stop the formation of shell agencies that avoid health and social insurance contributions and disappear after a few months with the arrears unpaid.

For an employer choosing an agency, the deposit is the first verifiable signal. An agency without a valid mediation licence has not lodged it, which means people are being supplied to you by someone who is not entitled to supply them. MPSV maintains the register of licence holders and the check takes minutes. Run it before you sign the framework contract, not when an inspector is already at the gate.

The second signal is more substantive. An agency that can state which job types it may assign foreign workers to, and which it may not, knows the regime it operates in. An agency that answers the same question by saying it will be sorted out somehow is putting the risk onto your shop floor.

Which positions are barred, and how the two routes compare

This is where the most common and most expensive error sits. MPSV states that a foreign national holding an employee card, an EU Blue Card, or a work permit may be temporarily assigned to a user firm only for job types not excluded by government regulation. Work in deep mines is excluded, and so are positions for which basic or lower secondary education without the matura examination is sufficient.

The practical effect is blunt. The typical helper and material handling roles, the very roles that send employers to an agency in the first place, fall into the category with no matura requirement. Foreign nationals holding those documents cannot be assigned to them through an agency. A firm that puts such a person on the line is not carrying a paperwork defect but work performed outside the permitted regime.

The fix is not to hunt for a reading that suits you but to change route. If the position is necessary for your operation and falls outside the permitted set, employ the foreign national directly and run the ordinary employee card procedure. The vacancy rules are set out in the Czech employee card and the vacancy register.

The two routes differ on five points, set out side by side below.

The duty to report a vacancy to the regional branch of the Labour Office applies to an agency exactly as it applies to a direct employer, according to MPSV. A user firm therefore cannot argue that it never reported the position because an agency filled it. The report has to run, and a file on it has to exist somewhere.

Disguised mediation, exposure and the timeline to plan for

SÚIP named disguised mediation of employment among its inspection priorities for 2026. It describes a contract signed as the supply of a service or a work product that in substance assigns people to work under the client's direction. The inspector reads the actual arrangement, not the title on the document.

Four features usually decide the case:

• The contractor's people work on the client's premises, on the client's shift roster, and to the client's instructions.
• The client decides which named individuals are used and moves them between sections.
• Payment is calculated per hour worked rather than per unit of output or per delivered work.
• The contractor has no supervisor of its own directing the work on site.

Where those features fit, the contractor needs a mediation licence and the deposit, and with foreign workers it also has to respect the job type restriction. The sanction reaches both sides. The client is not saved by the fact that somebody else drafted the contract, because the inspection happens on its premises and its people answer the inspector first. The procedure and the penalty levels are covered in Czech labour inspections in 2026.

Bringing an agency into an operation has its own rhythm. MPSV issues the mediation licence after an opinion from the Ministry of the Interior and after the CZK 500,000 deposit is lodged, and the procedure runs in months rather than weeks. Only once the licence is issued can the agency sign a framework agreement with the user firm, report the vacancy to the regional branch of the Labour Office, and assign the first people. For foreign nationals the document must be issued for a specific job, and every change of user firm has to be reported.

A user firm should hold three things in its file before the first shift: a copy of the agency's mediation licence, a list of the assigned people with their residence and work titles, and a written statement of the working conditions that apply to them, matched to a comparable employee of your own. If you are planning a larger intake and weighing the direct route, compare the conditions in the Qualified Employee Programme quotas for 2026.

The agency route works in Czechia for seasonal peaks and for positions inside the permitted set. For blue collar roles with no matura requirement it is the route that will not hold up under inspection. Our page for employers sets out how Werklist handles these steps.