The option of contributing towards employees’ meals through a cash meal allowance has celebrated its first birthday. During 2021, conditions that were initially unclear gradually became settled. We now know that working just 3 hours of a scheduled shift is enough to qualify.
For employees, one internal company policy is sufficient to define the circumstances in which, and the people for whom, entitlement to the cash meal allowance arises. There should also be an appendix to the policy in which the employer and employee agree on this form of benefit. For managing directors, the additional requirement is that their service agreement must expressly state that they are entitled to the cash meal allowance. If you have a service agreement without this provision, I recommend drawing up an amendment.
If your contract or amendment from last year expressly states that the employee is entitled to a cash meal allowance of 75 Kč/day, you need to prepare a new amendment. Given expected future increases, I do not recommend fixing the new amount in precise terms. Personally, I would recommend mentioning only the entitlement, possibly referring to the internal policy.
Of course, you do not have to increase your employees’ cash meal allowance. But I think it is a small yet welcome increase in the meal contribution that comes ‘on the side’. If you are unsure, feel free to get in touch and we will look at it together. 🙂