News

Civil Servants: Descriptive Study

New IDEA publication analyzes Czech public sector. The key findings can be summarized in the following points:

The Czech public sector employs around 935 thousand people, nearly a fifth of the country’s workforce. Approximately 420 thousand of them have their salaries paid and regulated by the state.

Only c. 66 thousand of them can be considered civil servants.

Only 29% of civil servants actually work at ministries; most work at related organisations. Between 2008 and 2012 their pay decreased, both in absolute terms and relative to average salaries in national business.

Figures used in budgeting differ greatly from reality, especially concerning pay. Real salary levels in certain areas of the civil service are higher than the corresponding pay scales currently in force. In other words, some offices exercise significant freedom when it comes to remuneration.

The available data from the state budget and accounts do not provide a clear enough picture regarding the logically defined sectors of the civil service. To achieve informed human resources management in the civil service it will be necessary to collect higher quality and more detailed information, and to use this data. The process of establishing future state budgets must involve consideration not only of past budget figures, but also data reporting actual conditions.