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Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Marian Jurečka (Christian Democrats), opposes adding dismissal without cause to the labor code amendment. In an interview with Czech Radio, he argued that the current changes are sufficient to make the labor market more flexible while still protecting workers. The government’s proposal includes measures such as adjusted notice periods, allowing minors aged 14 and above to work, and improving protections for working parents. Jurečka advocates for increasing unemployment benefits in the initial months of unemployment to encourage job transitions. He also aims to reach a compromise with unions on wage increases, focusing on adjustments starting September 1, with further increases planned for January 2024.

Production in Unipetrol’s Litvínov refinery in North Bohemia was shut down after an unexploded World War II-era bomb was discovered during excavation work in a remote section of the complex on Wednesday.

The refinery is expected to resume operations once the unexploded bomb is safely removed from the site, a process that the police estimate will be completed no earlier than Wednesday, 28 August.

Pyrotechnicians identified the find as a 250-kg British aerial bomb designed to explode 144 hours after the impact. Following the discovery, police evacuated 582 workers from the site and temporarily closed the main road between Litvínov and Most.

Czech senators have rejected the proposal to mark the Day of Samizdat on October 12, as it was approved by the lower house of Parliament earlier this year. According to the Senate, the day celebrating the production of illicit printed materials under the pre-1989 Communist regime should fall on April 27, which marks the anniversary of the founding of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted in 1978.

An amendment tabled by a group of coalition MPs proposed to celebrate the history of Samizdat on October 12, when a group of 92 Czech and Slovak samizdat publishers wrote an open letter to the then Communist president Gustáv Husák in 1988 condemning the jailing of a colleague.

The Ministry of Finance has downgraded its growth forecast for this year, predicting that GDP will increase by 1.1 percent. In April, the ministry predicted a growth of 1.4 percent. According to Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura, the deterioration in the outlook is due to a revision of GDP data from previous years, carried out by the Czech Statistics Office.

The ministry expects the Czech economy to see a stronger recovery next year, with GDP growing by 2.7 percent. Growth will be driven mainly by household consumption, which will grow by 3.9 percent, according to the forecast.