Czech Unions countering government labour reforms

Several Czech trade unions have begun to offer to compensate workers for sick leave, which due to government reforms is now unpaid for the first three days. According to a report in the Czech daily Hospodářské Noviny, a trade union in the Czech town of Žďár nad Sázavou will pay its members a compensatory salary of 500 crowns for the three days of sick leave. The paper also notes that this and similar tactics are helping to increase trade union membership in the country. The Czech Constitutional Court recently struck down the government’s introduction of unpaid sick leave, which will be rescinded by the summer.