Are unions a relic of a bygone era or can they bring real change and improvement to your workplace? What can they provide and on what occasions must employers not neglect them? Here is a clear summary.
Are unions a relic of a bygone era or can they bring real change and improvement to your workplace? What can they provide and on what occasions must employers not neglect them? Here is a clear summary.
Perhaps the word union evokes endless meetings that lead at most to providing a watch as a gift for deserving workers. But a functioning union can do much more than that – it’s up to its members. If functional, they can provide a platform for effective bargaining with the employer. In general, their main objectives are to improve working and economic conditions and to ensure areas of occupational safety. They can also help to deal with very specific situations at work, such as giving notice. Members pay a monthly contribution of 1% of their net salary to the union, which supports its independence.
Membership of the union is voluntary, as is the formation of the union itself. The Labour Code does not therefore stipulate the need for a company to have a union in certain situations and there are a large number of companies where no union is established.
Any employee of a company can form a trade union. All he or she needs is the consent and cooperation of two other colleagues, with whom he or she will form a preparatory committee. Together, the committee will draw up a constitution, which will be approved at the constituent meeting. The trade union must then be registered with the Ministry of the Interior and the employer notified of its formation. On the day following receipt by the Ministry of the Interior, the trade union is established.
The members of the governing body (bureau, committee, etc.) may well be persons other than employees of the company, but it is necessary to prove that at least three trade unionists are employed by the employer. It is not clear from the law what such proof should look like, but it does not necessarily mean that the trade union has to submit a list of members.
The employer may not even request information from its employees about their union membership, but it can be assumed that members of the preparatory committee will identify themselves as members.
There may be more than one trade union per employer. In this case, the employer is obliged to negotiate with all of them and inform them of everything necessary according to the law.
The employer should not penalise participation in a trade union, but unfortunately there are cases where this happens.
Employees at a factory in the North Moravia region were permanently dissatisfied with their working conditions. They were not being paid overtime, their wages were late, so four employees decided to form a trade union. Before they officially notified their employer of their formation, the employer gave them all notice. The employees turned to the Affordable Advocate for help. The situation was fairly clear. Not only did the employer not have a legal reason to terminate the employees at that point, but it was also clear that this was bullying and revenge related to the formation of the union. It was clear to our lawyers and ultimately to the employer itself that it could not legally remedy the situation and the terminations were invalid. The employer eventually acknowledged this and withdrew his terminations.
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The employer has several sets of obligations towards the trade union. First of all, it has to inform the employees through the union and it also has a duty to discuss certain matters with the union.
The employer is obliged to inform the trade union that works for him about:
Tip: We have covered occupational health and safety in detail in our separate article.
Joint decision-making between the employer and the trade union concerns the cultural and social fund, i.e. its allocation and use.
Trade unions must be authorised to bargain collectively by statute. In this case, they may negotiate a collective agreement.
A collective agreement is understood as a bilateral contract between a trade union and an employer, the content of which is the rights and obligations in labour relations. Consequently, it applies to all employees, i.e. not only those who are members of a trade union. If there are more than one trade union in the workplace, the organisation with the largest number of members acts for employees who are not members of any of them (unless the employee chooses otherwise).
A collective agreement may include, for example:
If the collective bargaining process does not lead to a successful outcome, a strike may be the last resort in a dispute over the conclusion of a collective agreement. According to the law, it must be preceded by unsuccessful proceedings between the employer and the employees.
Lapidary speaking, in all of them. You will find them in small firms and companies with thousands of employees. They exist in the public and private sectors and in almost all professions. Individual trade unions are organised by profession into trade unions, which may form other groups such as associations or confederations. The largest of these, the ASO ČR together with the ČMKOS, represent trade unions in the Council for Economic and Social Agreement (tripartite).
The Association of Independent Trade Unions of the Czech Republic (ASO CR) is an association of independent trade unions in the Czech Republic. ASO is the second largest trade union headquarters in the Czech Republic.
The Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKOS) is the so-called trade union headquarters, i.e. an association of trade unions in the Czech Republic. It brings together, among others, the firefighters’ union, the education workers’ union, the library workers’ union, the cultural workers’ union and many others.
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