Právo: Unemployment forces PM, union head to meet secretly

Prague, Feb 20 (CTK) - The surging unemployment rate that was close to record high values in January has forced two irreconcilable rivals, Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas and trade union head Jaroslav Zavadil, to secretly meet in the Chamber of Deputies and discuss it on Tuesday, daily Pravo writes Wednesday.

Necas refused to meet Zavadil, chairman of the CMKOS, as Zavadil said last September that Necas's government had been the worst since 1950.

The unemployment rate in the Czech Republic measured by the old methodology exceeded 10 percent in January and was the highest in the country's modern history, analysts told CTK in early February.

Necas and Zavadil told Pravo they had agreed that the development of unemployment constituted a serious problem the whole of the government had to tackle.

"The government will deal with it as it considers it a thing that cannot be the affair of a single ministry," Necas said, adding that it could not be ruled out that the jobless rate would further grow.

There were 585,809 unemployed people in the 10.5 million Czech Republic on January 31. The number swelled by 40.498 within the single month of January, Pravo writes.

The rate rose to 8 percent under the new method, it adds.

As job offices only registered 33.794 vacancies, there was one opening per 17.3 job seekers, Pravo writes.

"As almost 600,00 people are jobless and the number constantly increases, I must take interest in whether the government is ready to do anything with this," Zavadil told the paper.

Zavadil came to the meeting with the proposals with which to halt the growth in the unemployment rate or to curb it, Pravo writes.

They include support to kurzarbeit. Under the scheme, the state agrees with the employer and employee on shortening the working hours, while the employer does not sack him and the lost income is paid by the state.

The trade unions also want job offices to be not only "messengers of good or bad news," but to be more active in mediating jobs for job seekers, Zavadil said.

The government should also prepare reliefs for businesspeople who employ the disabled, he added.

"There is a number of possible measures and something should be done. Necas has promised to conduct a serious dialogue on the problem as he, too, considers this a bad situation," Zavadil said.

Zavadil said he also wanted to discuss the problem with Labour and Social Affairs Minister Ludmila Muellerova (TOP 09), Pravo writes.