Civil servants to strike over severe cut in "thirteenth month's" salary
The Czech Republic's civil service unions have announced that they are going on a one-hour strike in two week's time in protest at significant cuts to their thirteenth month's salary, a form of bonus. Employees - usually civil servants - receive a thirteenth month's salary just before Christmas, and if they are lucky enough to get a fourteenth month's salary it normally comes at the beginning of the summer.
"It was introduced from Austria. I think you will find this system in many countries, in fact, because it's a system how to pay people some reward that doesn't depend on output, because the output can't be measured."
Mr Zak works at a large publishing house, and he himself receives an extra month's payment every December, which - by the way - is taxed more heavily than normal pay.
"In this enterprise we have the thirteenth salary as well, so before Christmas everyone gets their salary once more. It's a way of saying that the enterprise likes you so you will have something better for your Christmas, some better pay."
Vaclav Zak says many people are used to and like this system, which means they don't have to save so much as the holiday season approaches.
"You can of course increase salaries and cancel thirteenth and fourteenth pay, or you can have lower salaries and maybe thirteenth or fourteenth pay. It's just a matter of convenience. In fact there is no difference, but people welcome the fact that they are not forced to save, they will get some money before Christmas."
The reason civil servants are going on strike is that - as part of a wide range of cost-cutting measures - the government is offering to pay them a mere ten percent of the thirteenth month's salary in the future, effectively doing away with the end-of-year bonus, leaving many workers worse off.
"Several people - maybe half of clerks - could have lower salaries than they had one year before. So their salaries would diminish rather than increase. So the fuss isn't about thirteenth or fourteenth salary. They would be content if their salary increased as such. The problem is they would have less money per year than they had before."
