The Czech judiciary would need CZK 1.5 billion more in its 2023 budget to raise salaries. Photo credit:Freepik.
Prague, Nov 10 (CTK) – Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura yesterday promised judges that the Justice Ministry will have enough money in its budget by 2025 to raise the wages of court employees to the level of the average salary in the Czech public sector, Supreme Court deputy chairman Petr Suk said.
Suk said the result of the meeting with Stanjura, Justice Minister Pavel Blazek (both ODS), and Central Bohemia Regional Court head Ljubomir Drapal was a compromise.
“We agreed on the goal that judiciary employees should receive the average salary of the public sector. We would like this to start next year already, but the finance minister could not guarantee this,” Suk said.
In October, the chairs of Czech courts warned that the judiciary is facing a collapse because it has long been underfunded. They said they cannot guarantee the operation of the court under the current conditions. The government has refused to sufficiently raise the salaries of judiciary employees, at odds with its stated policy, they argued.
The Czech judiciary would need CZK 1.5 billion more in its 2023 budget to raise salaries.
The court chairs previously said the average monthly salary of a Czech civil servant was CZK 41,181 last year, while that of court employees was CZK 32,800. The starting monthly salary of some administrative workers was CZK 14,650, and had to be supplemented with CZK 1,550 to reach the level of the guaranteed wage.
Minister Blazek said no deal has been in fact made. “It seems to me that we moved forward a bit. The situation needs to be dealt with and it will be dealt with,” he told journalists.
The Finance Ministry said in advance it would not comment on the results of the meeting because it considers the discussion to be working talks behind closed doors.
Suk said the compromise meant that there will be at least two more years during which it will be very difficult to find employees and make them stay in their posts.