Health workers call off strike

Health workers have called off their threat to strike on the Oct. 15 election day after the government issued a new resolution promising their salaries would not be reduced by the implementation of zonal pay scheme in 2011.

However, senior members of the Trade Union of Health and Social Care Workers (OSZSP) told The Prague Post that the union would not rule out striking at a later date until social care workers receive a similar guarantee.

"The strike will definitely not take place Oct. 15," union Vice President Ivana Břeňková said. "But to stop considering it, we demand also an exception from the Labor Code for social workers. They are already the most undervalued staff."

She said the union's expert committee would meet Oct. 7 to evaluate the resolution issued to parties at the pay talks by Labor and Social Affairs Minister Jaromír Drábek (TOP 09) Oct. 1.

The union's other vice president, Dagmar Žitníková, said that if the OSZSP did not receive guarantees about social workers' pay, it could still strike before Parliament votes on the 2011 budget in December.

"Social workers are those with the worst salary conditions. The proposed cuts could mean their salaries would be equal to the minimum wage level, which is not acceptable for us," Žitníková said.

Jana Kašparová, spokeswoman for the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, said the new resolution had also met the demands of education workers.

However, she said the Trade Union of State Bodies and Organizations (STATORG) remained opposed to the plans for zonal remuneration, which would see seniority removed as an automatic benchmark for pay rises.

Kašparová said that Alena Vondrová, president of STATORG, had expressed "strong disagreement" at the talks, calling the new system "salary discrimination." 

She told government officials that the possibility of an official with 25 years' experience being paid the same as a recent college graduate could be both unconstitutional and against several international treaties, Kašparová said.

Kašparová also criticized the government's behavior during the talks, pointing out that no new documentation was issued to the unions before Oct. 1 even though Drábek revised his plans on base pay directly after Sept. 21's demonstrations by up to 40,000 public workers on the streets of Prague.

"Until Oct. 1's meeting, there was no authentic written agreement reached with the government available, it was not even available on the Internet. In this time of crisis, dialogue should not be conducted this way," she said.

Kašparová singled out Drábek for criticism, claiming he "changes his opinions every hour" and added that even Prime Minister Petr Nečas was surprised when unions said they had no written agreement from the government.

Government spokesman Martin Kupka said that the talks had revealed "mutual willingness to reach a consensus," with attention centered on the implications of zonal remuneration rather than pay cuts.

He said Nečas had made clear in the talks that he would not give up on the 10 percent cut that each government department must make in its pay budget for 2011.

"The solution of how to reach the cut of 10 percent is up to the different institutions, whether they decide to take the path of salary cuts or employee dismissals," Kupka said. "In most cases, it is going to be a mixture of both."

While the immediate threat of a strike has receded, Kupka said the government would continue the talks even if a strike was held.

Under the zonal remuneration system - which is already in use for certain categories of public workers including health workers - public and state sector employees would see their salaries defined by zonal pay classes, into which workers would be moved based on managerial decisions and without always taking years of service into account.

The plans were introduced by Drábek Sept. 22 and have been approved by the government. The minister told reporters Oct. 1 he still wants the system to ultimately apply to all public and state workers.

Drábek has already agreed to a proposal by the unions for a joint working group that would look at how the system might function in 2012 and beyond.

Unions began protesting during the summer over both the 10 percent pay cut and the government's original plan to abolish the base pay tables under which public workers' pay has been automatically raised for every year of service.

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Bill Lehane can be reached at
blehane@praguepost.com