Prague, Sept 15 (CTK) – The salaries of the Czech public sector employees, such as firefighters, police and clerks, will rise by 3 percent as of November, trade unions agreed with PM Bohuslav Sobotka and Finance Minister Andrej Babis yesterday, CMKOS umbrella unions head Josef Stredula has told CTK.
The pay rise should also be reflected in the base pay schemes.
The Labour and Social Affairs Ministry has already received instructions to work out the respective directive on salaries, Stredula said.
The means in the fund of culture and social needs will also rise as of January, at least by 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent, which is by about 670 million crowns.
The coalition council is yet to debate the possibility to increase the fund by 0.25 percent to 1.75 percent.
The fund is used for the payment of various bonuses and contributions, for instance, additional pension insurance, meal vouchers, recreation and language courses for employees.
A total of 610,000 employees were receiving wages within the public sector in 2014. One fifth of them were manual workers.
The average gross monthly wage in the public sector was 26,793 crowns. The median wage was 25,393 crowns.
Government spokesman Martin Ayrer said the pay rise would apply to the people paid from the state budget, such as firefighters, police officers, employees in the culture sector and of labour and tax offices.
The wages of doctors, nurses and other health care personnel will also rise, but as of January only. Their remuneration is defined in a special directive that takes effect on January 1.
It is not sure how much their salaries will increase. Health care personnel and doctors’ trade unions demand a 10-percent pay rise.
Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD) will discuss the issue with Sobotka (CSSD) and Babis (ANO) on Thursday.
The pay requirements in the education sector have not been fully negotiated either, Stredula added.
In April, the government coalition of the CSSD, ANO and Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) agreed to increase the sum for the salaries of the public sector employees by 3 percent as of next year.
However, trade unions criticised the agreement. They mainly did not like that politicians had not debated the change with them, but they had agreed on it during the talks on the convergency programme for the euro adoption and on the budget deficit.
Trade unionists pointed to the economic growth as well as the planned more than 3-percent rise in the salaries of lawmakers, ministers and other senior officials as of January.
The CMKOS previously recommended that company employees should demand a pay rise of three to five percent as from January.
A total of 2.86 million people received a salary in the Czech Republic last year. The average gross wage was 27,046 crowns. The median wage was 22,399 crowns.
About 1,200 union members plan to come to Prague on Wednesday to mobilise their forces ahead of the negotiations about the wages in the private sector.
($1=23.984 crowns)
