On Thursday, Julinek promised to accept the unions' proposal for changes in the Labour Code regarding overtime work if they end their current strike alert within 24 hours and if they do not go on the strike called for March 5. The deadline is to expire at 2:00 p.m when he will arrive at a Czech government okays new Penal Code ...
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Hundreds protest against Czech Health Minister's plans ... meeting of an expert group established by the tripartite, a body comprising representatives of the government, unions and employers. The team is to find a solution to the problem with overtime.
The trade union leaders are to give their position to him at the meeting. "I am waiting for a clear statement. It does not matter how they will arrive at it, I will not check their procedures," Julinek told CTK today. Julinek said he wanted the statement to be "unambiguous and trustworthy." On Thursday, Julinek unexpectedly said he would drop his proposals to extend the health personnel's working hours and to introduce contractual wages. "We are drafting a written answer for the minister," Martin Engel, chairman of the Czech Doctors' Union (LOK), told CTK this morning. The new Labour Code, which took effect early last year, set a limit for medical workers' overtime hours. For their presence at workplace, while on duty, they are paid like for standard working hours. Many doctors exhausted their overtime hours limit in the first months of 2007, but continued working, as the health facilities concerned had no money to employ further staff. The unions have declared a token strike for March 5 in protest against Julinek's new proposals for working hours and remunerations in health care. Julinek previously proposed to extend doctors' weekly work hours from the current 40 to 48 and add eight hours of overtime to them. Health workers described his proposal as an effort to introduce a work Saturday. The unions and the employers have jointly proposed a change in the Labour Code which they submitted to the Labour Ministry for completion. Like Julinek, they reckon with the working week of 56 hours, but their proposal differs from Julinek's in the working week's structure and financial remuneration. The main point Julinek and the unions differ on is that Julinek wants to introduce contractual wages to medical staff. The unions fear that wages would decline if firm pay brackets were abolished. It will be wages that hospitals would reduce to save money, the unions say. "The ministers have entrusted the agreement to their social partners and deputies. We will meet at 1:00 p.m. and write down a report," Jiri Schlanger, chairman of the Health and Social Care Worker's Union (OSZSP), said. "Julinek has taken into account that calling off the strike alert only on the basis of the report will last some time. He is satisfied with the positive will to resolve the affair," Schlanger said.
(Ceske Noviny)
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