Unions: government should scrap civil servants' 13th and 14th month bonus pay in favour of higher monthly wages

Delegates from the UNIOS group of unions representing the gas industry and communal services have released a statement saying the government should scrap the system of civil servants' so-called 13th and 14th month bonus salaries in favour of raising workers' basic monthly wages. UNIOS chairman Karel Sladkovsky made the announcement on Saturday shortly after union representatives completed a meeting in Prague. Earlier in the week more than 200, 000 civil servants went on strike in the Czech Republic in protest of the government's decision to pay them only 10 percent, instead of the usual 50 percent of the 13th month bonus. Mr Sladkovsky criticised the government's plan to implement a new 16 point wage scale without, in his words, "knowing what to do next". Some 750, 000 work in the public sector, with roughly 450, 000 receiving salaries from the state budget.