President signs bill on accident insurance into law

The obligation to pay compensation for work-related accidents will be transferred from commercial insurance companies to the state, namely the Czech Social Insurance Administration, under a new law signed by the Czech president on Friday.

Until now, employers have paid accident insurance to one of two insurance companies set down by the Labour Code: the Kooperativa and Ceska pojistovna companies. But, the situation was criticised by the European Union, which proposed two solutions: either to include all insurance companies in the system, or to transfer the insurance - as the new bill does - to the state.

Author: Jan Velinger