THE ROLE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN CZECH LABOUR LAW

Abstract

Czech collective employment law remains to be quite far from the Western European tradition. Once rich and flourishing, the Czech collective employment law world had been profoundly changed during the Nazi and mainly Communist Era, where the role assigned to collective agreements was diminished to a soft plan implementing directives of the State. After our return to democracy, it is obvious that we had to adopt not only new democratic regulations but also to re-build informal structures. Because of suppressed role of trade unions, poor level of social dialogue and a number of statutory regulations, Czech collective agreements are cursed to play only a secondary role even in the near future.