DPMB meets trade unions to negotiate a pay raise for their 2.700 employees. Photo: @BrnoDaily
Brno, Sept 13 (BD) – Brno’s transport company (DPMB) has been meeting the trade unions with the aim to achieve a collective agreement regarding salaries of their 2.700 employees. So far, the parties have not reached any agreement.
Next year, all DPMB employees want to see their income increased by 5.000 CZK per month. In case DPMB representatives do not outline a reasonable proposal, Brno faces a high risk of a strike.
The next meeting between both parties will happen on September 25. DPMB management wants to propose a pay raise only between three and five percent. “We will definitely come up with a new proposal. But I do not believe, it will be a successful negotiation,” Libor Weinstein, the head of the trade union expects, Czech online daily iDnes.cz wrote.
In addition to higher incomes, trade union representatives want DPMB to redefine employees’ working shifts, especially the night shifts.
“There are few drivers and the situation is no longer tolerable. We work in our free time. They call us every time to go to work, and we do not have time for the family at all,” a DPMB driver told to Czech online daily iDnes.cz on Monday.
The company lacks around 100 drivers and in the long run, admits a plan to hire Ukrainian drivers. Currently, Brno transportation company has over 30 employees from Poland, Ukraine and Slovakia.
“Every driver has to meet the criteria that apply to this profession,” Barbora Lukšová, DPMB spokesperson said, ensuring that the foreign drivers would have the same wage conditions as the Czech drivers.
DPMB explains that raising the income of all 2.700 employees means expenditures up to 220 million CZK per year.
“Fare sales stagnate for a long time, and we cannot expect the city to increase compensations, according to unionists’ demands. On the other hand, I understand that the work of the drivers is demanding, especially in the conditions of the traffic in Brno,” Milos Havranko, DPMB’s Chief Executive Officer said.
