News

A Czech breeder of Cane Corso dogs had his champion dog, who died of a heart failure earlier this year, cloned in the United States, the news site Novinky.cz reported. The two-month-old puppy arrived in Prague at the beginning of September and is now in quarantine. It is reportedly the first cloned dog in Central Europe. The procedure cost approximately two million crowns.

Following Monday’s meeting with Justice Minister Pavel Blažek on pay rises, unions in the judiciary are not ruling out strike action. Trade Union representatives said the planned salary hikes for next year are insufficient and many employees in the judiciary will remain CZK 5,000 to 6,000 below the average wage in public administration.

Police officers are also planning to protest outside the Office of the Government over low pay in the coming days. The government has said it will increase salaries by 5 to 8 percent for some employees in the public sector next year  but only on a selected basis. The only public sector employees who have been guaranteed a pay increase are teachers.

Labour market conditions in the Czech Republic have worsened for the third year in a row and are the tenth worst in the EU, mainly due to low flexibility and large gender inequalities in pay, according to an analysis by European Union Open Data Portal. The report says that the Czech Republic is failing to create favourable conditions for employees on the labour market despite having the lowest unemployment rate in the EU. For instance, Czech employees often do not have the option of part-time work, which makes it difficult for parents looking after young children to  be at least partly economically active. According to the analysis the best work conditions for employees are in the Netherlands, Austria and the Scandinavian countries.

Detectives are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a 19-year-old youth who jumped from a glider in Kladno on Sunday during a training flight. Contrary to initial reports, which spoke of a panic attack, the police have opened criminal proceedings on suspicion of involvement in suicide. The young man jumped out of the glider shortly after the tow plane had disconnected at an altitude of about three hundred metres. His parachute reportedly failed to open. His body was recovered by an emergency crew an hour later. An investigation revealed that he had flown on numerous occasions before the incident and never showed any sign of fear. A post-mortem has been ordered to ascertain whether he had been drinking alcohol or using drugs ahead of the flight.