The impact of the economic crisis on collective bargaining in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Economic crisis, starting in 2008, led to a double recession in the Czech Republic. Enterprise-sector employees were most affected in the first phase and public sector employees in the second. The latter protected their conditions largely through political protests with collective bargaining playing a smaller role. Collective bargaining in the enterprise sector had developed over the preceding decades and continued through the crisis, albeit with agreements less likely to include pay increases. There was no permanent shift in content, with pay increases back on the agenda as conditions improved. There may have been an increase in employment practices that weakened employees’ positions where bargaining did not exist. Two case studies from the motor-vehicle industry show union organizations accepting pay restraint, resisting management pressure for more flexible work practices and welcoming continued division into a core and peripheral labour force.