Government to discuss downsizing civil service

The government is set to discuss lowering the number of civil servants at this Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, the Czech News Agency reports citing Vice-Premier and Labour Minister Marian Jurečka.

The announcement comes after the government agreed to raise public sector tariff salaries for all workers who have not yet seen their earnings rise since the beginning of this year. The raise is expected to benefit around 365,000 public sector employees and will cost the government CZK 1.1 billion, Mr Jurečka said.

The minister said that cutting civil service jobs must go hand-in-hand with the above measures as well as digitization, and that the cuts should be implemented from January of 2023.