The negotiations on the collective agreement in construction are extending

Prague - The collective bargaining agreement in construction is unlikely to be concluded by the end of the year. The unions are demanding a wage increase of 7.5 percent, while the Union of Entrepreneurs in Construction is offering five percent. The unions are also requesting an additional week of vacation in the sectoral collective agreement. After two rounds of negotiations, another two are to take place before the new year. This was reported to ČTK by the chairman of the Construction Trade Union Stanislav Antoniv.
    "In the case of large companies, collective bargaining is quite successful," said Antoniv. For example, at Skanska, wages will increase by 13.5 percent next year. The unions initially demanded a 15 percent rise in wages, while the employer offered ten. According to the union chairman at Skanska, Igor Tůma, the significant wage increase was also strongly influenced by the shortage of workers in construction.
    Skanska spokesperson Ondřej Šuch labeled this increase as exceptional, attributing it to changes in the company's wage system, where the so-called thirteenth salary is being incorporated into the base salary. "Under different circumstances, we would have increased wages by as much as we have in the last few years, that is, five percent for manual labor professions, three percent for technical and economic employees," he told ČTK.
    According to Antoniv, a collective agreement was also concluded on Tuesday with Českomoravský cement. Pavel Kučera from the union organization at Českomoravský cement informed ČTK that tariff wages will increase by seven percent next year. The company's spokesperson Miroslav Příkopa confirmed the information about the conclusion of the agreement, but refused to disclose specific numbers, stating that the employees had not yet been informed about them.
    In some cases, however, wage negotiations have not even begun. This concerns, for example, Metrostav. The head of the local union, Pavel Majer, has so far declined to reveal what wage increase they will demand.
    According to some analysts, wages may rise in some sectors more than what the unions demand. "The unions remain very cautious and are requesting a wage increase of seven percent, regardless of inflation. However, I believe that the expected productivity growth in some sectors, along with the anticipated sharp increase in inflation, would justify higher wage demands in selected sectors," said the chief economist of Česká spořitelna, Viktor Kotlán, last week.