Prague, July 20 (CTK) – The Czech military will admit even applicants with a slight disability, for instance, a vision disorder and an allergy, for turgently understaffed professions, such as drivers, cooks, technicians, healthcare workers and IT experts, daily Lidove noviny (LN) writes yesterday.
The Defence Ministry is preparing a new directive in this respect that is to take effect as of October.
“The directive will open the door to the military and active reserves to experts with a slight health restriction,” Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) said.
“A lawyer or an IT expert need not necessarily have a perfect shape of a fighter in all positions,” Defence Ministry spokesman Jan Pejsek added.
Primarily a poor physical condition of applicants for service in the professional military and not money is the main reason why the Czech military is short of staff. At present it needs some 4,000 soldiers. However, up to two-fifths of applicants do not pass medical check-ups, LN writes.
The commander of the Prague Castle Guard, in charge of the protection of President Milos Zeman, also complains of a bad condition of applicants.
“Last year, 286 people sought service in the Castle Guard, but only 42 of them met the criteria,” Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek said in the spring.
The current recruitment directive does not enable people with a health disability to wear a uniform, that is those qualified as B (capable with objection) or C (capable with limitation) by a military recruitment commission, LN says.
A new directive will give them a chance to become either professional soldiers or active reservists.
These people will serve in the military, but they will not be able to be deployed in actions demanding top physical capability and precise and quick senses and they will enjoy short-time or long-time reliefs, LN says.
Besides, the military will decrease its qualification requirements. All noncommissioned officers will have to complete secondary education with an apprenticeship certificate at least, while in the past they needed a school-leaving exam. The practice has proved that experience is more important than this exam for these positions, LN writes.
It says some people challenge the softening of criteria for recruits.
MP Antonin Seda (Social Democrats, CSSD), from the Chamber of Deputies military committee, criticises the lower criteria for military recruits. He said he would admit them only for some qualifications, such as interpreters and IT experts.
Unlike the Defence Ministry, he considers the pay level in the military one of the reasons why it is short of experts. The army cannot offer them as high salaries as private firms, he said.
The Czech military has some 22,000 soldiers now.
The starting salary of a newcomer is about 19,000 crowns. A lieutenant earns 29,600 crowns and a captain 39,000 crowns a month. Moreover, soldiers receive various bonuses, for instance, for higher responsibility, being on alert and for service abroad.
The changes in the recruitment conditions are connected with the new defence laws that took effect at the beginning of summer holiday. They introduced the conscription of volunteers over 18 who would undergo a three-month military exercise and the state would call them in the case of a serious crisis, LN says.
The first conscripts will be trained as of October. The softer criteria will apply to their successors only, LN writes.
