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, this survey has been conducted regularly since 1993. Its purpose is to map and analyse the content of collective bargaining in the Czech Republic. The aim of the survey is to provide the state and other institutions (CNB, Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs, etc.) an overview of trends of collective bargaining and to provide contractual partners adequate information for further negotiations on a corporate level or for negotiations in respect of a higher-level collective agreement.
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, 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. WCIS is carried out by TREXIMA, Ltd.
The survey focuses on agreements of social partners in the areas of:
- cooperation of contracting parties
- remuneration for employees
- length of working hours, forms of work, increase of holiday, changes in employment
- employment rate and employees' professional development
- working conditions and benefits
- 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 entered in the system electronically by means of the acquisition programme “EKS”, or by direct collection of collective agreements.
In 2011 selected data about wage and working conditions were analysed from 1,623 collective agreements from 23 different trade unions (TU). In 2011, 21 higher level collective agreements were also analysed and evaluated.
2. Aim of Collective Bargaining
The aim of collective bargaining is to agree on the working conditions of employees (including remuneration) and 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. In order to achieve these objectives, the state (that sets minimum standards) and both contracting parties need a comprehensive and quality information base, which will enable to make comparisons both with the conditions and economic possibilities of the employer. The function of a collective bargaining agreement (CA) is to create conditions 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 fair wage and good 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. The main purpose of this institute is to prevent any undesirable competitive advantages among comparable employers due to substantially lower labour costs that would be to the detriment of employees. At the same time the extension of the binding effect of higher-level collective agreements is recognized as a provision of the state to support collective bargaining according to conventions and recommendations of the International Labour Organization.
3. Results from Research for 2011 Based on a Sample of 1,301 Enterprise Collective Agreements in the Business Sector
Remuneration – minimum monthly wage rates
Results of the research of enterprise collective agreements (ECA) in 2011 have shown that the subsiding economic crisis became evident on the changed dynamics of the year-on-year comparison of the minimum monthly wage tariffs as against the previous year. While in 2010, the development dynamics was ranging between 0.8% and 2.4%, in 2011, the dynamics growth became much faster due to the economic situation and it reached the level between 1.5% and 6.0%. Compared to 2010 when the dynamics reached the highest values in relation to the employees with medium-high income, the dynamics slightly slowed down with those employees in 2011. On the other hand, the highest growth of wage tariffs was recorded in the group of employees with the high income.
It is interesting to see a comparison of minimum monthly wage tariffs between employers with the lowest and highest level of such tariffs, when the base pay provided by employers operating within the Textile, Clothing and Leather Industry Trade Union of Bohemia and Moravia fall in the 12th wage category, approximately only 55% of the level of agreed tariffs provided by employers operating within the ECHO Trade Union (energy and chemistry).
Wage trends
More than 56% of the analysed enterprise collective agreements regulate the field of wage development, of this 0.1% of the ECAs in the form of reducing the average wage and 4.4% of the ECAs in the form of maintaining the level of the average wage. This year, a growth of any of the wage forms is included in51.6% of the ECAs, which means an increase in ECAs by 9.2% compared to 2010.
The increase wage is not expressed by one figure in enterprise collective agreements, but is represented by several different forms - by increasing the average nominal wage (21.7% ECA), by increasing wage scales (18.4% ECA), by maintaining real wage (11.5% ECA), by increasing total volume of wage funds (5.5% ECA), or by increasing the average real wage (1.9% ECA). An analysis of the data showed that in 2011 an increase of 2.9% 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 to2.9%. Hence this year, the growth of the agreed wage tariffs and the average nominal wage remained approximately on the same level as in 2010. As concerns agreements in which the wage development is agreed in the form of an increase of the average real wage, the average agreed increase amounts to 2.3%.
Level of most frequently used premiums of wages
The premiums are an integral and important part of enterprise collective agreements. Currently the information system on working conditions focuses especially 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 work in difficult conditions.As regards the number of ECAs and an average agreed amount of extra pay, these levels remain more or less on the same level as in 2010.
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 44.9% ECA, for overtime work on public holidays (Saturdays and Sundays) at 30.8% ECA and for unspecified overtime work at 39.4% ECA. In the business sector, the average level of the agreed premium for overtime work on working days amounted to 25.9% of average wages and premium for overtime work on Saturdays and Sundays 48.2% of average wages.
An arrangement on wage supplement for night work is included in 82.2% of enterprise collective agreements and its minimum amount is at least 10% of the average earning pursuant to Section 116 of Act No. 262/2006 Coll.
The analysis evaluated the average value of the supplementary charge in enterprises at the level of 11.3% of average income with 41.3% of ECA. This premium, in accordance with the option stipulated in Sec. 116 of the Labour Code, is still agreed on for the most part in hourly rates (48.9% ECA), when the average value of the premium amounts to13.26 CZK per hour.
The premium for work on Saturdays and Sundays was agreed to in 77.2% of enterprise collective agreements. This year the average nationwide amount of the premium has amounted to 22.4% of average wages (71.1% ECA), which means that its value is approximately at the same level as in 2010. 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 32.5% 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.
More than 76% of enterprise collective agreements include an agreement for contracting parties on the premium for work on public holidays, where the average amount of this premium amounts to 102% of average wages.
61.3%of enterprise collective agreements include an agreement on the provision of the premium for deteriorated working environment.The analysis recorded only a slight increase in the average value of this premium when compared to 2010. In 2011 this premium amounts to 7.29 CZK per hour (agreed in 50.3% ECA), 10.6% of the basic rate of minimum wages (agreed in 8.8% ECA) or 10.4% of average wages (agreed in 3.9% ECA).
Benefits and working conditions
Canteen meals
The most frequent benefit provided to employees in the enterprise collective agreements this year is the employer's contribution for canteen meals. In 2011, the claim for this contribution was agreed in almost 94% of the enterprise collective agreements, which means a fall by 1.3% of ECAs compared to 2010.
Of this number, more than half of all employers make 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 54.6% 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 32.84 CZK in 2011. In 14.3% of the ECAs, employers contribute to their employees for canteen meals also from a social fund or another fund created from profit. The contribution agreed to here amounts to 12.19 CZK per meal or 27.8% of the price of the meal. There is a sample of almost 21% ECAs in the survey that contain an agreement on the provision of the canteen catering allowance; however, they do not stipulate the actual amount of such allowance.
More than 15% of the ECAs included an arrangement on provision of preferential meals to former employees, almost 3% of the ECAs an arrangement on their provision to employees during their holiday leave and 2% of the ECAs an arrangement on their provision to employees during temporary incapacity to work.
Employer’s pension plan
Arrangements for the provision of employer contributions towards a pension plan have become another important part of enterprise collective agreements. While in 2010 57.5% of enterprise collective agreements contained this arrangement, this year it has appeared in58.8% of enterprise collective agreements. The average monthly employer contribution increased by 66.43 CZK compared to 2010 and amounts to526.27 CZK. This year the minimum amount of allowance amounts to 405.37 CZK, and the maximum amount of the granted allowance amounts to 647.18 CZK. An analysis of the data showed significant differences in the amount of the contribution for employers covered by individual trade unions. While the maximum average value of the contribution for the employers covered by TU for workers in textile, clothing and leather manufacturing industry of Bohemia and Moravia amounts to 241.67 CZK/month, for the employers covered by TU for UNIOS (services, foreign trade, gas industry) the contribution is about 4 times higher and amounts to 969.49 CZK/month. The survey has shown that compared to 2010, this year has recorded a slight increase, by 1.5%, in the number of enterprise collective agreements in which the payment of this contribution is conditioned by fulfilment of specific conditions (agreed in 44% ECA). This year’s survey disclosed a certain number of agreements (13.8% of enterprise collective agreements) in which this contribution is determined as a percentage of an employee’s monthly assessment base and averages3.0%.
Life insurance
This year, 20.9% of enterprise collective agreements include the provisions of a contribution towards life insurance, which is approximately the same number of enterprise collective agreements as in 2010. The average amount of this monthly contribution provided by the employer increased compared to 2010 by 67.37 CZK and amounts to547.90 CZK per month. The minimum allowance amount granted this year is 462.13 CZK, and the maximum amount of such allowance amounts to 630.14 CZK.
Social fund
In order to ensure certain social needs of employees, employers are able to create a social fund or they can use other social programmes (without differentiation of financial resources). The survey implies that 29.8% of organizations determine in their corporate collective agreements the creation of social funds and 16.1% of organizations create other social programmes. The data analysis has shown that the creation of the social fund is in this year mostly subject to the volume of wages paid, when its average level is 1.9%, as with the other social programmes. Should the organizations use the appropriations to the social fund in the form of an absolute sum per one employee from profit, such sum amounts to 2,999.00 CZK or 4,779.00 CZK for other social programmes, as the case may be. In 9.9% of all corporate collective agreements employers are able to draw the funds in the form of drawing accounts.
Working time and holidays
Working time
95% of enterprise collective agreements contain an agreement on working time, of which 66.3% specify uniform working time for the whole organization and 28.7% contain an agreement on different working times according to different systems of shift work.
Analysis of data has shown that in 77.8% 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 in only 19.7% 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 (81.0% ECA), 2-shift system of work– 38.75 hours/week (66.7% ECA), 3-shift system of work –37.5 hours/week (93.8% ECA) and in continuous system of work –37.5 hours/week (79.2% ECA).
Leave
The information system of working conditions also monitors the extension of the holiday leave in excess of the limit specified by the Labour Code, according to which the basic claim for the holiday leave amounts at least to 4 weeks per calendar year. An extension of the holiday leave by more than one week is arranged in more than 78% of the enterprise collective agreements and almost 1% of the enterprise collective agreements extend the holiday leave by two weeks.
The survey has shown that only 5.8% 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 3.6 days.
Updated: 30.11.2011