Nove Mesto pod Smrkem, North Bohemia, Oct 12 (CTK) – Further rise of the minimum wage is one of the ways of preventing an outflow of workforce especially in the border regions of the Czech Republic, Czech Labour Minister Michaela Marksova said after meeting her Saxony counterpart Martin Dulig on Thursday.
“I think that further increase in the minimum wage is a right path in our country. I cannot be surprised that people find jobs across the border in Germany or Austria because the earnings are still incomparable,” Marksova said.
“Either I want to keep the people here and so I pay them well and would not protest that the minimum wage is going up,” she said.
The monthly minimum wage is to increase from 11,000 to 12,200 crowns in the Czech Republic as of January, but the minimum wage in Germany is about three times higher.
However, a lack of employees is a problem on both the Czech and German sides of the border.
Tomas Jirous, from CiS Systems that employs about 700 people in its plants for cable producer in the remote Frydlant district, said the minimum wage is not the only factor that plays a role.
“Our minimum wage is 14,000 crowns and we still have problems to hire workers. They go not only to Germany but also to Liberec,” he told CTK, referring to the centre of the Czech region.
CiS Systems is part of the CiS group based in Germany.
Jirous said the company would like to rise salaries, but it does not have enough employees to sign more contracts.
Many companies, such as Denco Manufacturing air-conditioning producer from Liberec, takes the path of automation for its news projects.
But automation is not an option for CiS because it produces only small series and sometimes even single pieces, Jirous said. The company would appreciate if it could hire more workers from abroad, mainly Ukraine, he said.
