Czech Republic - Union confederation calls for support for public sector workers - September 30, 2010

Public sector workers are facing an across the board cut of 10% in salaries as well as the prospect of a new pay structure that could result in cuts of up to 40% for some categories of workers. On 21 September, the CMKOS union confederation organised a national demonstration in Prague, in protest at planned changes to the labour code and attacks on public sector workers, in which health personnel, firefighters and police staff played an active role. The health sector union announced it will take strike action on 15 October if the government pushes ahead with its plans. A meeting on 30 September between Prime Minister Petr Neas and the unions brought no solution, though both sides said to be willing to continue negotiating.

English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/379

http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/thousands-of-people-protest-in-prague ...

http://www.praguemonitor.com/2010/10/01/pm-unions-meeting-shows-no-progress ...

Czech: http://www.cmkos.cz/uvodni-strana/aktuality/2459-3/vyzva-krizoveho-stabu ...

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.