A strike in the education sector is planned for Monday 27 November. Will your school close its doors on this day?
What are the reasons for the strike and what is the situation with participation in the strike from the labour law perspective can be found in the article.
More funding for education
The reason for the strike is that Unions are asking for more money for education. Participation in the strike should be confirmed by school organisations at least 3 days before the strike is scheduled to take place.
If all the school staff join the strike, the schools will remain completely closed. If only some of the staff want to join the strike, the school can arrange at least a partial operation.
What all leads unions to strike is stated in the Opinion of the Council of the Association of Primary School Principals of the Czech Republic, published by the Czech-Moravian Trade Union of Education Workers. These are the following reasons:
- Uncertainty in education
- Lack of financial resources to non-teachers
- Failure to address funding for non-teaching teaching professions
- Published by salary increases not corresponding to reality
- Reduction of PHmax
- Reduction of the calculation financial resources for teaching assistants
- Reducing ONIV (used for the acquisition of textbooks and teaching aids)
TIP: For more detailed information on the planned strike by the education unions, please visit www.skolskeodbory.cz, which is the official website of the Czech-Moravian Trade Union of Education Workers.
Participation in a strike from the perspective of labour law
Participation in the strike is another important personal obstacle on the part of the employee By § 199 of the Code Work for which the employee is not entitled to wage/salary compensation. The employer is obliged to provide Staff leave of absence within the specified scope. The period of time during which the employee participates in the strike is considered as performance of work pursuant to Section 348 of Act No. 262/2006 Coll., the Labour Code.
Employees who do not participate in the strike, but the strike prevented them from doing their jobs, wage/salary compensation equal to the average earnings for obstacles to work on the employer's side under Section 208 of the Labour Code. Teaching staff who are not actively participating in the strike may carry out indirect teaching activities.
If the teachers will be substituting hours not taught due to the strike on alternative dates, these are overtime hours (extra direct activity), for which teaching staff receive a supplement. This follows from Article 23(4) of Act No 563/2004 Coll., on teaching staff, which states the following:
"Direct pedagogical activity in excess of the hours set by the headmaster of the school or social services institution shall be deemed to be direct pedagogical activity carried out in accordance with paragraph 3 even if the teaching staff member has not fulfilled the weekly hours of direct pedagogical activity set by the headmaster resulting from the weekly schedule of direct pedagogical activity because he or she did not carry out direct pedagogical activity during the period assessed as performance of work."
Additional pay for direct teaching activities beyond the established scope is regulated by Section 132 of the Labour Code.
For teaching staff with shorter weekly working hours, direct teaching activity beyond the established scope is direct teaching activity that exceeds the weekly hours of direct teaching activity corresponding to the established weekly working hours (hours beyond the established weekly working hours in the organisation).
Should the situation arise that the employee's gross income due to participation in the strike does not reach the minimum wage, the employer must make a calculation to the minimum assessment base for health insurance.
What is PHmax?
PHmax is the maximum number of hours of instruction funded by the state budget for a primary school, secondary school and conservatory established by a region, municipality or association of municipalities. It is regulated by Government Decree No. 123/2018 Coll. The rules for the procedure for calculating PHmax are set out in the breakdown set out in Annex 1 to this Decree according to:
- Fields of education of primary and secondary education per 1 class depending on the average number of pupils in the class
- Fields of education provided in the conservatory per year depending on the average number of pupils in the year
The PHmax is set separately for each type of school.
Government Regulation No.123/2018 Coll. includes annexes containing data for determining the PHmax - the average number of pupils in a class.
AVENSIO SW programme
Employees, who are taking part in the strike, you enter on the tab Compensation (Employee Card - Employment Relations) using the set user code with the system code 368 - UNPAID OBSTACLE TO WORK.
For employees who do not take part in the strike a they can't because of the strike work, on the tab Compensation (Employee Card - Employment Relations) obstacle on the organization's side using a user payroll code with a set system code 384 - OBSTACLE - ORGAN. The employee will be paid wage/salary compensation equal to the average earnings.
Surcharge for direct activity beyond the specified scope on the tab Payroll items (Employee card - Employment relations) using a user payroll code with a set system code 190 - DIRECT ACTIVITY. MORE.
For an employee with a shorter working week you enter the hours worked in excess of his/her agreed shorter weekly working time into the limit of the set weekly working time in the organisation as a supplement to the time using the user payroll with system codes 16 - SUPPLEMENTARY WAGE for primary schools, 15 - SUPPLEMENTARY WAGE for secondary schools, 17 - SUPPLEMENTARY WAGE for elementary art schools.
Source: website of the Czech-Moravian Trade Union of Education Workers www.skolskeodbory.cz
