Prague, June 13 (CTK) – The Czech government plans to negotiate with trade unions about the pay rise in the public sector on June 19, PM Andrej Babis (ANO) told journalists after a meeting of the Tripartite Council or representatives of the government, trade unions and employers today.
The unions welcomed this step.
They complained that the talks with Babis’s outgoing government had not started yet and that the nascent cabinet of ANO and the Social Democrats (CSSD), supported by the Communists (KSCM), planned to raise wages of selected professions only in its draft policy statement.
On Tuesday, the unions announced that they were prepared to stage protests.
CMKOS umbrella union head Josef Stredula said after the meeting today that he believed the situation would be calmed down and an agreement would be achieved thanks to negotiations.
The trade unions demand that the salaries of teachers be raised by 15 percent and the base pay of other public sector employees by 10 percent as of October.
Babis said the sum for the public sector salaries would be raised by 10 percent next year, while the teachers’ salaries would rise by 15 percent. Besides, nurses and auxiliary nursing staff would get extra pay for shift work.
Other public employees will see a 6-percent pay rise.
The government refuses to raise wages across-the-board.
Babis previously said the the wages of the professions with the lowest pay level should be raised first, along with the pay in the branches that lack staff, while the superiors should decide on the pay rise.
Trade unions oppose this stance and they demand a pay rise for all. They stress that public sector and administration employees stick together and support each other.
The CMKOS associates 13 public sector trade unions, including the unions of school employees and health care workers.
According to the data from the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry’s information system on average pay, 634,700 people worked in the public sector last year. The average monthly gross pay amounted to 31,968 crowns, which was a 8.4 percent year-on-year rise. A half of the people earned more than 29,840 crowns a month.
The average monthly pay in the Czech Republic rose by 8.6 percent to 30,265 crowns in the first quarter of 2018 year-on-year. If inflation is calculated, it really rose by 6,6 percent, which has been the fastest rise since 2003.