Czech Post Employees Plan Christmas Strike

Fighting for higher wages, 6,000 postal workers have scheduled a two-hour “warning strike” on Monday

Dave Park

Written by Dave Park Published on 18.12.2016 10:00:00 (updated on 18.12.2016) Reading time: 1 minute

About 6,000 Czech Post employees – roughly one-fifth of the postal service’s workforce – have scheduled a two-hour “warning strike” for Monday, December 19, reports iDnes.cz.

The strike is scheduled to take place from 17:00 – 19:00. Union members have threatened further strikes on December 22.

The action is a coordinated effort of three of the eight unions that represent Czech Post employees, totalling about 20% of the company’s 30,000-strong workforce. 

The goal is a monthly wage increase of 2,500 CZK for all employees.

The average income for a Czech Post employee is 21,400 crowns per month, according to Petr Pohl, chairman of SOS-21, one of the unions behind the planned strike.

That’s about 6,000 CZK less than the average monthly wage across the Czech Republic, going by third quarter 2016 statistics released last week.

According to Czech Post spokesperson Matyáš Vitík, the raise is “beyond economic reality.” The company has declared the strike an illegal action.

If you’re relying on Czech Post to deliver your packages in advance of Christmas, you might want to play it safe and order a day or two ahead this year.

Would you like us to write about your business? Find out more