Prague, May 24 (CTK) – The Czech Chamber of Deputies asked the cabinet today to raise the monthly pay in social services by an average 3,000 crowns at least as from July, which is considerably more than the 5-percent increase planned by the centre-left cabinet.
The lawmakers’ resolution was pushed through by Zbynek Stanjura, head of the opposition Civic Democrats’ (ODS) group in the lower house of parliament.
Stanjura said the government-proposed 5-percent rise means the pay’s real average increase by some 700 crowns, which is “too low a sum.”
The Chamber of Deputies consequently supported the proposal by Jana Hnykova (opposition Dawn) that the cabinet earmark three billion crowns for the wages in social services this year.
The lower house dealt with the situation in social services for the second time in recent few weeks. Some deputies warned against a critical situation social services face due to a shortage of personnel.
The situation has been dramatically worsening, with many nurses and patient care attendants leaving social services for other branches of profession, Stanjura said.
Deputies from the government Social Democratic Party (CSSD) as well as the opposition Communists (KSCM) pointed out that it was the rightist ODS that cut the budgets of social services while in power from 2006 to 2013.
KSCM deputy Hana Aulicka Jirovcova accused the other parties of coming up with the issue shortly before the October 20-21 general election, though they repeatedly rejected the KSCM’s proposal for a pay increase in the past years.
Challenging her assertion, conservative opposition TOP 09 deputy Marketa Adamova Pekarova said she, too, had submitted a proposal in this respect, which the KSCM backed, but still it failed to push it through parliament.
According to social services’ providers and trade unions, qualified staff have been leaving the branch due to low wages.
Social services are short of up to 10,000 attendants and nurses, which might lead to a restriction of the care of seniors and disabled people, the critics say.
According to an information system providing the average monthly pay data, attendants caring for old and disabled people in institutions or at home earn 19,058 crowns a month.
The average gross monthly wage reached about 27,600 crowns in the Czech Republic in 2016.
($1=23.615 crowns)
