"Technically, everything is possible, but the bargaining on wages should rather aim at the year 2009, for which the [state] budget is being prepared," Kalousek (Christian Democrats, KDU-CSL) told journalists after the government meeting. School workers' unions last Friday said they gave Education Minister Ondrej Liska (Greens) ten days to negotiate a wage increase for them.
Afterwards the unions will launch protests that might culminate in a several-day-strike, they said. This year, the Education Ministry has received 71 billion crowns to finance schools operated by regions, which is about 60 percent of U.N. Human rights body criticises Czechs over Romanies, cage beds ...
CzechRep, USA to agree on radar treaty in couple of days ... the ministry's budget. As a result of a high inflation, educational workers' real wages have decreased, the unions say. In addition, in some regions school budgets were raised by less than 2.8 percent the government previously promised. The increase stands at about 1.5 percent, the unions say. In the first two months of the year, inflation in the Czech Republic reached 7.5 percent and in March 7.1 percent. To solve the situation, the government should increase the budgets of regional schools' budgets by some 3 billion crowns, the unions say. Liska said on Friday that in his opinion there exists a chance for the situation to be solved this year. According to the data from the Institute of Information in Education, released on Thursday, the average monthly wage of teachers at regional schools was 23,858 crowns last year. In general regional education workers' average monthly wage was 19,842. The average wage in the Czech Republic was about 21,700 crowns last year. ($1=15.921 crowns)
(Ceske Noviny)
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