Working Conditions Information System (WCIS)
1. Introduction
The Working Conditions Information System (WCIS) is a regular annual survey of wage and working conditions negotiated in collective agreements for the relevant year. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic, this survey has been conducted regularly since 1993. Its purpose is to map and analyze collective bargaining in the Czech Republic and to provide contractual partners with sufficient information for entering into enterprise collective agreements or higher level collective agreements.
WCIS is regulated by the Commission for Regulation and Coordination of Labour connected with the information system on the cost of labour, which is composed of representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic, the Czech Statistics Office, the Bohemian and Moravian Confederation of Trade Union Organizations, the Union of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic, the Czech National Bank, CERGE-EI and the Prague School of Economics.
The survey focuses on agreements of social partners in the fields of:
- remuneration for employees
- cooperation of contracting parties
- length of working hours and increase of holiday, changes in employment
- employment rate
- working conditions and benefits
- employees' professional development, fair treatment, industrial safety and health protection at work
The WCIS survey monitors enterprise collective agreements and higher level collective agreements. The most important criterion for classification of results is whether the investigated economic entity belongs to a business or non-business sector. The business sector includes economic entities, which remunerate with a wage pursuant to Sec. 109 (2) of Act No. 262/2006, the Labour Code; the non-business sector includes entities, which remunerate with a salary pursuant to Sec. 109 (3) of the Labour Code, as amended. Input data are acquired into the system electronically by means of the acquisition programme “EKS”, which is used by individual trade unions, or by direct collection of collective agreements.
In 2009 selected data about wage and working conditions were analyzed from 1,673 collective agreements from 24 different trade unions (TU). In 2009, 23 higher level collective agreements were also analyzed and evaluated.
2. Aim of Collective Bargaining
The aim of collective bargaining is to regulate the working conditions of employees (including remuneration) and also to regulate the relationships between an employer and the trade union organization (employees' representative) operating in the enterprise (e.g. the scope of provided information, the form of discussions on important issues etc.) with the aim of ensuring enterprise, branch and nationwide industrial harmony. For collective bargaining to be correct and efficient, both parties need a high-quality information base, which will help establish the basic requirements of both parties so that the position of the employer and employees is correctly established in relation to the environment as well as its economic possibilities. The basic aim of a collective bargaining agreement (CA) is to create conditions in the organization, which will help the company or institution secure stability and enable it to concentrate on its strategic objectives. In regard to employees, the CA guarantees them wage and working conditions.
An important part of collective bargaining includes higher level collective bargaining agreements and the extension of their binding effect on employers in the relevant line of business. This institute serves namely to prevent unjustified competitive advantage of those employers who resist collective bargaining or participate in collective bargaining but do not want to provide to their employees benefits that are common and reasonable with similar employers, as a result of which they create a more advantageous price for labour and a better position on the market at the expense of their employees. At the same time, extension of the binding effect of higher level collective agreements is recognized as a measure of the state to support collective bargaining in accordance with the Agreements and Recommendations of the International Labour Organization.
3. Results of the Survey of Enterprise Collective Agreements in the Business Sector in 2009
Remuneration – minimum monthly wage rates
The 2009 results of the survey in enterprise collective agreements (ECA) have shown that a change occurred in the dynamics of inter-annual comparison of trends of minimum monthly wage rates as opposed to the prior year. Whereas the dynamics of development in 2008 shown an increasing trend compared to 2007 in all tariff levels, achieving values of 5.8% - 9.3%, in 2009 the development has slowed due to the economic situation and has fallen to 2.3% - 5.6%.
A comparison of minimum monthly wage rates for the trade union (TU) with the lowest and highest levels of such rates is interesting. The trade union for the textile, clothing and leather manufacturing industry of Bohemia and Moravia attains approximately 46% of the amount of the agreed rate of the trade union for UNIOS at the 12th tariff level.
Wage trends
More than 56% of the analyzed enterprise collective agreements have resolved the area of wage trends, which in comparison with 2008, represents a decrease of 17.8% in enterprise collective agreements. The wage trend is not expressed by one figure characterizing the overall wage trend in enterprise collective agreements, but is represented by several different forms - by increasing the average nominal wage (26.6% ECA), by increasing wage scales (22.4% ECA), by maintaining real wage (10.4% ECA), by increasing total volume of wage funds (6.1% ECA), or by increasing the average real wage (1.9% ECA). An analysis of the data showed that in 2009 an increase of 4.4% was agreed to in enterprise collective agreements regulating wage increases by increasing the average nominal wage. In enterprise collective agreements in which social partners regulate wage trends by increasing wage scales, the average agreed increase amounts to 4.5%. This has led to a slight reduction of the agreed wage rates and average nominal wage by 1% compared to 2008. In regard to agreements in which wage trends have been agreed to by increasing the average real wage, the increase represents 2.4%.
Level of most frequently used premiums
The level of premiums forms an integral and important part of enterprise collective agreements. Currently the information system on working conditions focuses on premiums, which appear most frequently in enterprise collective agreements. Such premiums include namely premiums for overtime work, night work, work on Saturdays and Sundays, work on public holidays and premiums for work in difficult conditions.
Almost 85% of enterprise collective agreements include the amount of premium for overtime work. This year a premium for overtime work was agreed to on working days at 50.1% ECA, for overtime work on public holidays (Saturdays and Sundays) at 32.1% ECA and for unspecified overtime work at 34.5% ECA. In the business sector, the average level of the agreed premium for overtime work on working days amounted to 26.0% of average wages and premium for overtime work on Saturdays and Sundays 47.9% of average wages. A noticeable deviation from the nationwide average value is shown for instance in the collective agreements of the trade union for mines, geology and oil industry, which reported a value of premium for overtime work on Saturdays and Sundays in the amount of 60.0% of average income.
83.1% of enterprise collective agreements contain an agreement on the premium for night work. According to sec. 116 of Act No. 262/2006 Coll., the premium for night work amounts to at least 10% of average wages. The analysis evaluated the average value in enterprises at the level of 11.2% of average income with 40.3% of ECA. While average values shown with respect to most trade unions adhere rather to the amount prescribed by the Labour Code, the trade union for Health Services and Social Care of the Czech Republic provides this premium in the amount of 18.9% of average wages. This premium, in accordance with the option stipulated in Sec. 116 of the Labour Code, is still agreed in most part in hourly rates (48.8% ECA), when the average value of the premium amounts to 12.64 CZK per hour.
The premium for work on Saturdays and Sundays was agreed to in 78.9% of enterprise collective agreements. This year the average nation-wide amount of the premium has amounted to 24.5% of average wages (75,1% ECA), which means that its value is approximately at the same level as in 2008. If we compare the agreed values of this premium in individual trade unions, its level is the highest in the TU for workers in transport with an average value amounting to 32.9% of average wages. On the contrary, the lowest level of this premium in the amount of 10% of average wages is shown with the TU for catering, hotels and tourism and the TU for postal, telecommunication and newspaper services.
Almost than 76% of enterprise collective agreements include an agreement for contracting parties on the premium for work on public holidays, when the average amount of this premium amounts to 102.4% of average wages.
61.4% of enterprise collective agreements include an agreement on the provision of premium for deteriorated working environment. The analysis recorded only a slight increase in the average value of this premium when compared to 2008. In 2009 this premium amounts to 7.33 CZK per hour (agreed in 47.5% ECA), 10.5% of the basic rate of minimum wages (agreed in 10.2% ECA) or 10.7% of average wages (agreed in 5.0% ECA).
Benefits and working conditions
Canteen meals
More than 93% of enterprise collective agreements contain an agreement for contracting parties on the employer's contribution to canteen meals, which represents an increase of 1.6% ECA compared to 2008. Of this number, more than a half of all employers provide a contribution towards canteen meals from expenses in crowns or as a percentage of the meal price. The average amount of the contribution determined as a percentage of the meal price equals 54.7% and approximates the maximum amount specified in Sec. 24 (2)(j)(4) of Act No. 586/1992 Coll., the Income Taxes Act, as amended, for recording these contributions in expenses. The amount of the price paid from the employer's expenses then amounts to 33.32 CZK in 2009, compared to 32.89 CZK in 2008. The employers may further contribute to employees towards meals from the social fund or any other fund created from net profit. The contribution agreed to here amounts to 10.55 CZK (2008 – 10.37 CZK) per meal or 33.3% (2008 – 24.6%) of the price of the meal.
Employer’s pension plan
Arrangements for the provision of employer contributions towards a pension plan have become an ever more important part of enterprise collective agreements. While in 2008, 55.0% of enterprise collective agreements contained this arrangement, this year it has already appeared in 59.2% of enterprise collective agreements. The average monthly employer contribution increased by 48.68 CZK compared to 2008 and amounts to 417.69 CZK. An analysis of the data showed significant differences in the amount of the contribution with individual trade unions. While the average value of the contribution for the TU for workers in textile, clothing and leather manufacturing industry of Bohemia and Moravia amounts to 230.00 CZK/month, for the TU for ECHO the contribution amounts to 566.36 CZK/month. The survey has shown that compared to 2008, this year has recorded an increase by 4.4% in the number of enterprise collective agreements, in which the payment of this contribution is conditioned by fulfilment of specific conditions. This year’s survey disclosed a certain number of agreements (12.3% of enterprise collective agreements), in which this contribution is determined as a percentage of an employee’s monthly assessment base and averages 3.0%.
Life insurance
This year, 19.5% of enterprise collective agreements include agreement of the parties on the provisions of a contribution towards life insurance. Compared to 2008, there was a slight increase, by 3.9%, in the number of enterprise collective agreements, in which this index was agreed to. The average amount of this monthly contribution provided by the employer increased compared to 2008 by CZK 36.35 and amounts to CZK 472.29 per month.
Working time and holidays
Working time
94.7% of enterprise collective agreements contain an agreement on working time, of these 65.2% specifies uniform working time for the whole organization and 29.5% contain an agreement on different working times according to different systems of shift work.
Analysis of data has shown that in 77,1% of enterprise collective agreements, which stipulate uniform working time for the whole organization, the weekly working hours of 37.5 hours/week have been agreed to, while working hours of 40 hours/week have been agreed to only in 21.7% of enterprise collective agreements.
In regard to work in a shift system, the weekly hours have been agreed to as follows: 1-shift system of work - most often the working hours have been agreed to at 40 hours/week (81.4% ECA), 2-shift system of work – 38.75 hours/week (66.9% ECA), 3-shift system of work – 37.5 hours/week (92.8% ECA) and in continuous system of work – 37.5 hours/week (80.0% ECA).
Leave
The information system on working conditions also surveys the extension of leave outside the framework of the Labour Code. Increase of leave by one week has been negotiated in 75.6% of enterprise collective agreements, extension by two weeks in 0.8% of enterprise collective agreements and extension by more than two weeks in 0.2% of enterprise collective agreements. The survey has shown that only 4.7% of enterprise collective agreements contain an agreement on an increase of leave entitlement in days. The average number of days, by which leave was increased, amounts to 3.9 days.
Updated: 1.12.2009