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Punching the clock

Change in law hurts teenage workers

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
July 4th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Michaela Juhásová, 20, unaffected by a new labor law, waits patiently outside the Agentura Student agency in search of work.
On a late June afternoon outside Centrum Chodov shopping center, dozens of students shuffle in a winding line in front of Agentura Student, an agency that helps students find temporary jobs.
Clutching identification cards and registration forms, they squeeze into the agency’s narrow doorway, hoping to find seasonal work at grocery chains, assembly lines and warehouses.
Among them is Michaela Juhásová, 20, a student from Košice, Slovakia, who is trying to find work while spending her summer vacation in Prague.
“I am beginning to get desperate,” she says, motioning to the throngs of students in front of her.
Juhásová may be one of the lucky few. Many Czech high-school students are finding it difficult to secure summer jobs this year due to a new law that places stricter limitations on the employment of minors.
Teenagers can only work 30 hours per week under the new Labor Code issued by the government Jan. 1. The law also limits the work shift length to six hours per day.
“A vast majority of employers operate in eight-hour shifts,” said Agentura Student General Manager René Kuchár. “This new law is rubbish.”
Agentura Student employs about 6,000 students each summer, Kuchár said. Last summer, about one-sixth of them were under 18. This year, the number has dropped below 1 percent.
In the Czech Republic, laws restricting the employment of minors date to the interwar period when the country’s labor code matched the directives of the International Labor Organization.
“The labor code has always contained provisions for the protection of minors, although the methods have often been altered,” said labor law specialist Štěpánka Weisnerová of the BPV-Braun Haškovcová law firm.  
Government officials say they wanted to tighten youth labor laws to come in line with the European Social Charter. However, “the charter does not contain a significant directive limiting work time to 30 hours a week,” said BPV partner Arthur Braun. “In Germany, young people are still able to work 40 hours. Contrary to the Czech Republic, German youth labor laws are becoming more lax.”
Aside from the new time restrictions, the new Labor Code requires employers to sign employment contracts with all employees, including temporary workers, and mandates that employers keep a list of the names, addresses and birthdates of all employed minors.
It also replaces a previous law that required employers to notify minors’ legal guardians before hiring them.
“To a certain extent, this provision lowers an employer’s administrative requirements,” Weisnerová said.
When demand for seasonal jobs peaked in June, Agentura Student was forced to turn down hundreds of applicants whose age made them less attractive to employers.
“The situation is so discouraging that many of these kids have just stopped applying,” Kuchár said.
Most students who apply for seasonal jobs through Kuchár’s agency find work as cashiers or replenishing stock at companies like the grocery chain Makro. They can also score production jobs at companies such as General Bottlers, the local manufacturer for Pepsi. According to Kuchár, the new limitations on the employment of minors do not have a significant impact on these employers.
“Most of our clients don’t care whether the students we send them are in college or high school,” he said. “Their only priority is to fill empty positions.”
There’s still a huge demand for temporary labor, Kuchár said.
Some fast-food chains and other traditional temporary job providers are catering to minors by reducing the length of their shifts from eight hours to four or six hours.
“Limiting the lengths of our shifts enables us to employ more students,” said McDonald’s spokeswoman Drahomíra Jiráková.
When the tourist season heats up in late spring, the fast-food chain beefs up its staff with up to 20 temporary workers per restaurant, she said.
The grocery chain Albert, another traditional summer employer, is conforming to the new regulations by shortening the time slots of its regular shifts. “Instead of starting an eight-hour shift at 9 a.m., temporary workers can work from 10:30 and leave earlier,” Kuchár said.

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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