Collective bargaining on the Czech Railways about enterprise-level collective agreement for 2005 hasn’t finished yet. The five from the six trade organizations operating at Czech Railways reached the agreement after negotiations and signed the enterprise-level collective agreement on 27th January 2005. The Enginedriver´s Federation of the Czech Republic demands greater wage increase for the drivers and refuses to sign the agreement. The agreement is therefore not valid. Employees are loosing the extra benefits provided under the enterprise-level collective agreement.
The results of the failure to conclude the company collective agreement
The current situation of social dialogue in the joint-stock company Czech Railways (České dráhy a.s., ČD) is the persistent disagreement of social partners in negotiating the company collective agreement (ELCA) for 2005. During the course of negotiations, which lasted for days, the parties involved have tried to find a compromise in determining the amount of the annual increase in wages. Although the collective agreement was concluded on 27 January 2005 by five trade unions active in ČD and by ČD’s management, it is not enough for this agreement to become valid and effective. If the agreement is not signed by Enginedriver’s Federation of the Czech Republic (EFCR) (Federace strojvůdců České republiky, FS ČR), i.e., the sixth union body active in the company, which has rejected the agreement due its failing to push through a special professional premium for engine drivers, the ELCA cannot become effective. As a result, employees of ČD have since the beginning of the year lost some of the benefits that they had been accustomed to from the collective agreement (such as wage premiums, longer holidays, meal contributions, advantageous curative stays, shorter workweeks for employees involved in non-stop operations). As part of the continuing restructuring CZ0501102F, ČD is also preparing to accede to further mass redundancy - this year about 6,000 company employees should be released, which, in the absence of the ELCA, an agreement that could contribute to reducing the social consequences of such redundancy, for example, through severance pay higher than the statutory requirement and other benefits, could have an especially ill effect on departing employees. In addition, the fact that employees now have longer working hours and shorter annual leave could eventually result in a reduction in the total workforce required, thus causing ČD to consider releasing about 2000 to 2500 more employees than originally intended.
Trade unions in the railways and their influence on collective agreements
The largest trade union in the railways is the Union of Railway Workers (Odborové sdružení železničářů, OSŽ), which represents about 90% of the company’s employees. EFCR, whose stance is preventing the conclusion of the collective agreement, is the second largest trade union, but with a large gap between it and OSŽ. It represents about 9% of employees. In comparison with these tow trade unions, the remaining four are significantly smaller, with a membership base corresponding to 0.3% - 1.3% of the total number of ČD employees.
According to current legislation, conclusion of the ELCA is conditional upon the agreement of all trade unions active in the employer, unless agreed otherwise amongst themselves and with the employer. This constitutive principle of collective bargaining under the conditions of concurrent activity of a number of trade unions was accepted even in the past without reservations, as in the event of the dissent of a minority trade union, conclusion of the ELCA would not be possible. On the one hand, there is the principle of absolute trade union plurality, which takes into account to the same extent the standpoint of majority and minority trade unions and, in this way, is suitable for small trade unions that are usually defined by their professional principles (guilds). Conversely, the principle of representation takes into account the extent of representation and is, therefore, preferred by trade unions with greater membership.
In the case of ČD, the matter relates to the different perspectives applied by OSŽ and EFCR, with OSŽ in particular trying to urge its trade union partner with a smaller number of members to agree to the collective agreement. EFCR was aware of the difficult situation it was bringing to the discussions on conclusion of the ELCA by asserting its standpoint. It also demanded that a mediator be appointed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic (MLSA) (Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí ČR, MPSV) to help reach agreement. However, this demand was rejected by the other trade unions and the management of ČD (upon consultation with the MLSA). On the basis of its experience, OSŽ considers it necessary to change the unsuitable legislation and, in this way, prevent the repetition of such situation where a minority trade union partner makes it impossible to conclude the ELCA. It suggests implementing a legislative principle where, while respecting the equality of the unions, it is the majority that decides in the event of disagreement. Efforts to amend the law were supported by the leadership of the OSŽ through a nation-wide petition directed towards the Government of the Czech Republic (Vláda České republiky) and the Parliament of the Czech Republic (Parlament České republiky), and it is promoting its proposal at meetings with representatives of the parliamentary political parties. EFCR, together with other guilds and small trade unions outside ČD, are expressly against this legislative union initiative. In their opinion, the proposed amendment would lead to the dissolution of union plurality and, thereby, handicap all guilds or, generally, all small trade unions in the Czech Republic.
Outlook
For employers it is not acceptable for any profession in the railways to be given preferential treatment in such a form and to such extent as demanded by EFCR. The management of ČD set the end of February as the deadline for conclusion of the ELCA. As the EFCR failed to approve the agreement by this deadline, it will be necessary, if ČD employees are not to remain without a collective agreement in 2005, to start up negotiations again about the completely new form of the agreement that will be acceptable to all of the parties involved.
This information is made available through the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO), as a service to users of the EIROnline database. EIRO is a project of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. However, this information has been neither edited nor approved by the Foundation, which means that it is not responsible for its content and accuracy. This is the responsibility of the EIRO national centre that originated/provided the information. For details see the "About this record" information in this record.