On 21 December 2006, a new company-level collective agreement for 2007 was signed at the Prague headquarters of Czech Railways. The agreement, which governs relations between the contractual parties in 2007, took more than two months to negotiate. Among the provisions of the agreement is a 7% increase in tariff wages for employees at Czech Railways - the largest employer in the Czech Republic.
Bargaining negotiations
On 17 October 2006, collective bargaining commenced in relation to the company-level collective agreement for Czech Railways (České Dráhy a.s., ČD) for 2007, when the employer presented its draft agreement to the relevant trade union bodies. The employer’s negotiating team consisted of about 15 experts, led by the company’s human resources (HR) director. All trade union confederations active in the railway sector appointed their representatives: large delegations were assigned by the Trade Union Association of Railway Workers (Odborové sdružení železničářů, OSŽ), the biggest trade union organisation active at ČD, as well as by the Engine Drivers’ Federation of the Czech Republic (Federace strojvůdců České Republiky, FS ČR), which appointed as many as six negotiators. The other smaller trade unions operating in railways - the Federation of Train Crews (Federace vlakových čet, FVČ), the Union of Railway Employees (Unie železničních zaměstnanců, UŽZ), the Federation of Carriage Examiners (Federace vozmistrů, FV) and the Federation of Railway Workers of the Czech Republic (Federace železničářů, FŽ ČR) - were also represented by their chairperson or appointees. According to information from OSŽ, approximately 30 people altogether participated in the collective bargaining process.
Impact of new Labour Code
This latest company-level collective agreement is formulated on the basis of the new Labour Code, which was effective from the beginning of January 2007 and which has opened up new possibilities in the area of collective labour relations. In the opinion of the trade unions, the new Labour Code affords significant economic benefits and social guarantees for employees. Some trade unions believe that the impact of the new code and its bearing on the collective agreement has been so fundamental that when applying the collective agreement, it is appropriate to cross-check with the relevant provisions of the code. According to OSŽ, the collective bargaining process has been adversely affected by the absence of a valid government regulation addressing the working hours of transport workers and by the lack of certainty regarding the effective date of the Labour Code. Nevertheless, according to the Managing Director of ČD, Josef Bazala, the negotiators on both sides took a constructive approach to the collective bargaining process and endeavoured to resolve all points of contention. As Mr Bazala outlined, the collective bargaining process ‘was conducted in a friendly atmosphere’, and the approach taken by the trade union confederations had a ‘unifying’ effect rather than the reverse, while the ‘negotiators’ professionalism’ was clearly manifested.
Provisions of collective agreement
The collective agreement includes new provisions on work on public holidays for employees with non-standard working hours. Amendments were also made to provisions regarding the minimum length of breaks between shifts, the conditions for providing leave on working days and work standby terms. One completely new provision is the ‘public holiday right’, which should partially eliminate the persisting inequalities among employees in terms of the number of hours worked on public holidays; it is envisaged that by the end of the year, the amount of time worked on public holidays by individual employees will be balanced out.
Regarding pay, a 7% wage rise was secured, partly due to an increase in some wage compensations, rewards and bonuses. The fact that wage tariffs have gained in significance is good news for employees. The trade unions believe that the agreed way of implementing employees’ wage increase affords workers greater certainty at a time of organisational change, is more transparent, and guarantees a real wage rise. In the social area, the allowance for the maintenance of work uniforms was increased by 30%. Moreover, in the area of works catering, the nominal price of one voucher was raised. With respect to other employee benefits, the contribution to pension insurance and selected life insurance products is guaranteed at least until 2009.
Commentary
The OSŽ representatives in the negotiating team all concurred that the new collective agreement is both quantitatively and qualitatively the best in recent years. According to Mr Bazala of ČD, the new collective agreement represents the outcome of consensus and a balanced compromise, ‘although we did go a bit further than we had originally planned to and than the company’s business plan had envisaged’.
Jaroslav Hála and Soňa Veverková, Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs (RILSA)