The Service Act regulates the state civil service and not, for example, service in the defence forces. It does not apply to workers who are directly employed by a territorial self-administration unit in a municipality or region rather than by the state; the legal status of these workers is governed by Act No. 312/2002 Coll. on officials of territorial self-administration units, which has been effective since 1 January 2003.
The Czech government has resolved to withdraw the Service Act and replace it with new legislation. However, the trade unions are fundamentally opposed to this move. The Service Act was originally supposed to enter into force in 2004, but the effective date has been postponed three times, most recently to January 2009; the delay has been attributed to a lack of finances in the state budget.
Background
The Service Act regulates the state civil service and not, for example, service in the defence forces. It does not apply to workers who are directly employed by a territorial self-administration unit in a municipality or region rather than by the state; the legal status of these workers is governed by Act No. 312/2002 Coll. on officials of territorial self-administration units, which has been effective since 1 January 2003.
The Service Act was conceived as a government instrument for improving the functions of the state administration. Its aim was to put in place the right conditions for the existence of an effective, professionally advanced and, in principle, apolitical state administration. It therefore applies a regular assessment of employees and, for instance, a ban on all secondary work activities. At the same time, civil servants should be entitled to service bonuses, five weeks’ holiday and severance pay of up to 12 months’ pay depending on the length of their service. The legal regime established by the Service Act affects about 80,000 employees of the state’s ministries and administrative offices.
Developments to date
Act No. 218/2002 Coll. on the service of state employees in administrative offices and on the remuneration of such employees and other employees in administrative offices (Service Act) was passed by the Chamber of Deputies of Parliament of the Czech Republic (Poslanecká sněmovna Parlamentu České republiky, PSP ČR) on 26 April 2002; the Act was originally meant to enter into force on 1 January 2004. However, the effective date of the Service Act and the ‘accompanying act’ has been deferred three times and has yet to take force. The last deferral, agreed in December 2006, put the Act’s enforcement back to 1 January 2009 on the grounds of a lack of state budgetary finances.
Most recently however, in August 2007, the government resolved to scrap the Service Act entirely before it enters into force and to replace it with different legislation. The trade unions are fundamentally opposed to this move and would prefer an amendment of the valid Service Act.
Government proposal
The government wants to push through a new form of Service Act which would, for example, introduce the position of public administration institute manager. Employment contracts similar to managerial contracts in companies would be signed with employees in these posts. The government has not yet decided whether it will preserve the separation of legislation for state offices staff and for local government staff in municipalities and regions. Uniform legislation for all public administration workers is being considered; this would merge the scope of Act No. 218/2002 and Act No. 312/2002.
Trade union objections
The trade unions are against the proposed withdrawal of the Service Act, describing the move as ‘unsystematic’. They claim that the document based on which the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic (Ministerstvo vnitra České republiky, MV ČR) justifies the move to annul the act is shoddy and contains errors. The unions are also critical of the intention to introduce managerial contracts for management employees. In their opinion, the proposed system of managerial contracts would destabilise public administration in practice, making it entirely dependent on political changes. Moreover, the trade unions contend that the proposed changes regarding the position of employees in public administration violate the principle of equal pay for work of the same value.
At the same time, the Trade Union of State Organs and Organisation (Odborový svaz státních organů a organizací) insists on preserving the separate legislation on the status of staff of territorial self-administration units, which it believes has proved successful. The trade union is demanding that an expert working group made up of representatives of all of the concerned actors be established to prepare the new act.
Ondřej Novák, Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs
Nadácia Eurofound navrhuje citovať túto publikáciu takto.
Eurofound (2007), Government stalls on adopting new Service Act, article.
