Trade unions, businesspeople deny support to budget bill

Trade unions and businesspeople did not support the Czech state budget bill for next year at today's meeting of the three-side talks between them and the government, CMKOS umbrella trade union head Josef Stredula and Confederation of Industry President Jaroslav Hanak have told CTK.

They are of the view that the budget bill lacks the fall in revenues due to the planned cancellation of the super-gross salary, that is the gross salary increased by the health and social insurance payments covered by employers, and a change in taxation, they said. The budget is projected with the deficit of 320 billion crowns, as agreed on by the coalition government, comprised of Prime Minister Andrej Babis's ANO and the Social Democrats (CSSD), on Friday.

This is the second highest deficit in Czech history after this year when the government passed a rise in the budget deficit from 40 to 500 billion crowns due to the coronavirus crisis. The 2021 budget draft does not include the cancellation of the super-gross salary. However, Babis has several times repeated that the government reckons with the step, Stredula and Hanak said. Finance Minister Alena Schillerova (for ANO) said she cannot draft the budget as encompassing something that has not been anchored in law yet. This also applies to the super-gross wage abolition, she said.

She said that Babis will probably propose a bill abolishing the super-gross wage and introducting two income tax rates, 15 percent, and 23 percent for the wages above four-times the average wage, in the Chamber of Deputies early next week. Babis will propose the measure's validity of two years. "Afterwards, a new government will have to seek a new solution," Schillerova said. The next general election is due in 2021.

The trade unions and employers have failed to agree on a minimum wage increase in 2021. The unions demand an increase by 1,400 crowns to 16,000 crowns a month, while the employers are against any increase. It is therefore up to the cabinet to decide, Stredula said. "The cabinet has come up with no proposal. It wanted to transfer the decision making on us (unions and employers) and let us reach agreement on it. We have never reached agreement on this in the past 25 years," Stredula said.

Source: ČTK