Unions and employers reject gov't draft reforms

Prague, June 1 (CTK) - Czech trade unions and employers rejected yesterday the government-proposed pension and health care reforms and they will also demand the introduction of "kurzarbeit," Jaroslav Hanak, chairman of the Confederation of Industry, has told journalists.

"Kurzarbeit" is a system where work hours in companies faced with problems are cut short and the state compensates the employees for a part of the lost wages.

The unions and employers will table the issue at a meeting of the tripartite, in which also the government is represented, to be held at the end of this week or at the beginning of next week, Hanak said.

He said kurzarbeit is in the interest of both employees and employers.

"We will call on the government to immediately prepare analyses and legislative steps for the fastest possible introduction of it," Hanak said.

"We have been striving for it for several years. I suppose that the government will eventually start doing something after our joint pressure now," Jaroslav Zavadil, chairman of the umbrella Bohemian and Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (CMKOS), said.

The working out of an analysis of introduction of shortened work hours was one of 38 anti-crisis measures on which unions and employers reached agreement with then caretaker government of Jan Fischer in February 2010.

Supporters of the system argued then that it is more advantageous for the state to make the payments than to pay out unemployment benefits.

Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jaromir Drabek (TOP 09) said he has nothing against such an analysis, adding it will be used in further procedure.

Hanak said there is no need for introducing a second pillar within the pension reform.

According to the government draft, people could send a part of their social insurance they pay to the state pay-as-you-go system to individual accounts with private pension companies.

Hanak said the state pillar and the existing pension private schemes must be reformed.

Turning to health care, Hanak said the reform should be preceded by an analysis of where money is disappearing in the system.

"We believe that it is first necessary to put order in health care," which relates to the purchase of apparatuses, medicine policy and construction investment without corruption, and only then do the reform," Hanak said.

"Unfortunately, (the government) starts at the end, with financial participation of patients, and the above mentioned things are not being solved," Zavadil said.

"We will demand that the reform be withdrawn," Zavadil said.

In spite of fundamental agreement, the unions and employers disagreed on the number of hospitals in the country. Employers say there are too many of them while unions disagree.

The unions staged a demonstration against the government draft reforms in Prague's Wenceslas Square in May. It was attended by more than 40,000 people.

Now unions are planning a strike in rail, road and municipal transport.

They will declare it unless they reach agreement on the reforms with the government by June 10.