Czech Workers Research Articles

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIALIST PARTY IN 1948

The Czechoslovak National Socialist Party, which changed its name several times over the years and whose legacy is currently claimed by the Czech National Social Party as a successor organization, is one of the oldest traditional Czech political parties. It was established in 1897 in the period of political differentiation of Czech society with the ambition of becoming an association of Czech workers, the organization of which until then had been the focus of the international Social Democratic Party. Eventually, it profiled itself as the party of the lower middle classes, with a nationalistically formulated programme of defending the ideas of democracy, social equality and justice that was aligned with the vision of creating a reformist Czech national socialism. By tradition, it was opposed to Marxism, communism and any kind of totalitarianism, and, after 1918, participated in the building of a democratic Czechoslovak Republic. It defended these policy postulates even after the end of the Second World War, when, in a heavily reduced, centre-left party-political system identified with the concept of the National Front, it profiled itself as the most consistent opponent of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). While the Communist policy aimed at a complete takeover of power with the objective of the revolutionary transformation of Czech and Slovak society and the building of socialism and communism, the National Socialists unequivocally rejected this concept and aimed at a vision of a national, democratic and socially just state. The clash of these contradictory ideas about the future, which was not specific only to Czechoslovakia, but was related to the formation of the bipolar order of the world and Europe after the Second World War, and the fact that Czechoslovakia found itself in the Soviet sphere of influence, was reflected in the emergence and resolution of the government crisis of Gottwald’s cabinet in February 1948. The KSČ used this case for a coup d’état. It established the dictatorship of the proletariat in Czechoslovakia, liquidated the democratic political system and replaced it with a totalitarian one, and in line with Moscow’s intentions, it began a revolutionary transformation of society with the aim of building socialism. The February Communist coup also had a major impact on political parties, particularly the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party. The Communists, with the help of turncoats and careerists covered by Communist State Security, dismantled that party and began to actually build a new political party from its ruins under the name of the Czechoslovak Socialist Party. In terms of its policy statement, the party identified itself with the visions of the Communists, who made it a shadow organization collaborating with the regime until 1989. This study reflects the circumstances behind the formation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Party in 1948, with a focus on the formation of the party leadership and party elite. People who mostly cooperated with the Communists before February 1948, along with individuals secretly authorized by the KSČ and the security structures to work among the National Socialists for the purpose of intelligence and decomposition activities, established themselves as the leaders of the organization at central level.

Evaluation Of The Antivirus A Programme In The Czech Republic During The COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper analyses an employment support programme – the Antivirus A Programme – implemented in the Czech Republic during the COVID-19 pandemic aimed at maintaining a constant level of employment. We present this government programme in detail, including individual data related to its effectiveness and examine similar employment support programmes in other EU countries during the pandemic. We also analyse the economic development of sectors that received employment support. The main contribution of the paper is the creation of a counterfactual scenario of unemployment and inflation rate in the Czech Republic in the absence of the Antivirus A Programme using a short-run Phillips curve concept. According to Bajgar et al. (2021), one third of Czech workers could work from home during the pandemic. We find that if these workers had not been supported by the Antivirus A Programme, Czech taxpayers could have saved EUR 0.15 billion and inflation rate could have been reduced (based on our short-run Phillips curve model) by 0.66–0.99 p.p. for the entire duration of the Antivirus A Programme depending on the choice of assumptions related to the possibility of working from home.

Czech workers reconsideration of work from home during COVID-19

Employers and employees are continuing to experiment with work from home patterns. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the “home office,” a practice begun to slow down the pandemic by decreasing physical contact, has become the new norm in Czechia. To fill a research gap in the new work-from-home (WFH) field, the authors of this paper were interested in conducting research to find out whether there are significant differences in Czech employees’ perception between working remotely and going back into the office. An online questionnaire with 150 respondents was designed to answer the research question and test seven hypotheses. There are significantly more employees working from home at their own request than there are working from home solely at the request of the company. Furthermore, employees with a separate office at home work there significantly more often than those without a separate office. The most common motivations for working from home are: absence of commuting (47.33%), flexibility (43.33%), and fewer interruptions (26%). The tolerance of working from home in Czechia does not seem to be able to withstand a downturn flexibility trend. In other words, the Czech workforce does not prefer working from home to become a fixture in the future.

Kolik nás může pracovat z domova? Výsledky pro Českou republiku

How well can a society and an economy face up to COVID-19 depends, among other factors, on how many jobs can be performed at home. Work from home has the potential to increase firms' productivity and quality of workers' lives regardless of COVID-19, but it can also create new challenges. In this paper, we estimate the share of Czech workers who could work from home, using detailed Czech labour force survey data and an internationally recognised occupational classification methodology. Overall, we apply in the Czech context a methodology developed by Dingel and Neiman and published by the Journal of Public Economics in 2020. Our results show that about one third of Czech workers can perform their jobs from home. This share is comparable with countries at similar per capita income levels and with the share of workers who worked from home in Czechia during COVID-19 in the spring of 2020. The ability to work from home is distributed unequally across sectors, regions and workers' education levels. Whereas around four fifths of workers in the financial or the information technology sectors can work from home, less than one in five workers in agriculture and culture can work from home. Most university-educated workers can work from home, but only one in ten workers with primary education can do so. About a half of the workers in Prague can work from home, while only about a quarter can do so in the rest of the Czech Republic.

The early decades of the Bata Shoe Company in India: From establishment to economic and social integration

The study presents a historical and sociological interpretation of the events that marked the gradual integration of the Bata Company into the Indian economy and society from the mid-1920s to the early 1960s. Within this context, in addition to the general economic, political and cultural developments, particular attention has been devoted to the everyday life of Indian and Czech workers in the Bata company town of Batanagar. The study is based on a comparative-historical analysis of available archival sources and a secondary analysis of the relevant academic literature. The results of the research indicate that during this period, Bata was forced to adapt continuously to the cultural specifics of Indian society, that is, the process of its integration into the Indian economy and society had pronounced glocal characteristics.

Does Robots´Reach Exceed Their Grasp? Differential Impacts of Robot Adoption and Spillover Effects on Workers in the Czech Republic

This paper uses a quasi-differences-in-differences approach to identify impacts of robotisation and exposure to robots owned by foreign competitors on labour market outcomes of Czech workers. Utilising employee-level data allows for identification of differential impacts on workers of different skill levels. We find that while robot adoption substantially increases demand for college-educated labour, demand for employees with an elementary and/or high school diploma decreases slightly. Exposure to robots owned by foreign competitors also seems to drive up the demand for college graduates and to suppress the demand for workers with lower qualifications.

An integrated model of work engagement: How the satisfaction of basic psychological needs explains the relationship between personality and work engagement

This paper aims to broaden the understanding of work engagement antecedents. It focuses on impact of personality characteristics ? positive affectivity, proactive personality, and conscientiousness on work engagement, and examines whether personality influence can be explained by self-determination theory, i.e., the satisfaction of needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. An online questionnaire on a sample of 783 Czech workers provided our data. Structured equation modelling showed the influence of positive affectivity and conscientiousness on engagement can be partly explained by the satisfaction of the need for competence. The relationship between proactive personality and engagement cannot be explained by the satisfaction of any of the basic psychological needs. More specifically, positive affectivity predicts the satisfaction of all three needs, conscientiousness predicts only the satisfaction of the need for competence, and proactive personality does not predict the satisfaction of any need. Interestingly, engagement is predicted only by the satisfaction of the need for competence.

Rationed Life: Science, Everyday Life, and Working-Class Politics in the Bohemian Lands, 1914–1918, by Rudolf Kučera

Rudolf Kučera’s 2013 Czech-language study of the fragmentation and re-constitution of the working class in the Bohemian lands in the First World War is now available in a clearly translated English-language edition, published by Berghahn Books (perhaps surprisingly, it is not part of their well-established ‘Austrian and Habsburg Studies’ series, although in approach and theme it is obviously a close cousin of many of the works featured there). Its subject is the attempt by planners to cope with wartime scarcity in Habsburg Bohemia. Something between a long essay and a monograph, it is a work of impressive intellectual sophistication and originality. Kučera’s central argument is that the First World War practically transformed into public policy long-existing scientific and rationalist discourses about the organisation of work and of workers. There seemed to exist in Habsburg war planners’ minds an ‘optimal work ratio’, the achievement of which would lead in turn to an optimal output from Czech workers, balanced, of course, against an efficient minimum of ‘inputs’. Calculations thus existed to determine the right amount of ‘fuel’ (that is, food) and work/rest balance workers would need in order to sustain themselves—oversupply in any of these fields could potentially undermine the Habsburg war economy. Kučera does not argue that there was a centralised masterplan to this process of rationalisation: this kind of power operated in a diffused, Foucaultian fashion. These were bodies of knowledge the origins of which were in the Enlightenment, but which were dormant or academic in nature until the advent of the war created an urgent need for their application in every conceivable field of the economy.

Why resilient workers perform better: The roles of job satisfaction and work engagement

ABSTRACTPrevious studies have confirmed correlations between resilience and job performance, but surprisingly little is known about the nature of this relationship. This study sheds light on the roles of two important positive dimensions of work-related well-being: job satisfaction and work engagement. Data were collected from 360 Czech workers in helping professions using an online survey. Levels of resilience and perceived job performance were indeed positively associated. Using structural equation modeling, the best-fitting model showed partial mediation by work engagement; conversely, job satisfaction was not found to be a mediator of this relationship. Additionally, the finding that job performance is related more strongly to work engagement than to job satisfaction contributes to the debate about the concurrent validity of job attitudes.

Labor Supply Shocks, Native Wages, and the Adjustment of Local Employment*

AbstractBy exploiting a commuting policy that led to a sharp and unexpected inflow of Czech workers to areas along the German-Czech border, we examine the impact of an exogenous immigration-induced labor supply shock on local wages and employment of natives. On average, the supply shock leads to a moderate decline in local native wages and a sharp decline in local native employment. These average effects mask considerable heterogeneity across groups: while younger natives experience larger wage effects, employment responses are particularly pronounced for older natives. This pattern is inconsistent with standard models of immigration but can be accounted for by a model that allows for a larger labor supply elasticity or a higher degree of wage rigidity for older than for young workers. We further show that the employment response is almost entirely driven by diminished inflows of natives into work rather than outflows into other areas or nonemployment, suggesting that “outsiders” shield “insiders” from the increased competition.

Labor Supply Shocks, Native Wages, and the Adjustment of Local Employment

By exploiting a commuting policy that led to a sharp and unexpected inflow of Czech workers to areas along the German-Czech border, we examine the impact of an exogenous immigration-induced labor supply shock on local wages and employment of natives. On average, the supply shock leads to a moderate decline in local native wages and a sharp decline in local native employment. These average effects mask considerable heterogeneity across groups: while younger natives experience larger wage effects, employment responses are particularly pronounced for older natives. This pattern is inconsistent with standard models of immigration but can be accounted for by a model that allows for a larger labor supply elasticity or a higher degree of wage rigidity for older than for young workers. We further show that the employment response is almost entirely driven by diminished inflows of natives into work rather than outflows into other areas or non-employment, suggesting that outsiders shieldinsiders from the increased competition.

The Impact of Czech Commuters on the German Labour Market

In the process of European integration, regions close to a border are especially affected by labour market liberalisation. Using data from the IAB employment subsample (IABS) and the employment register (BeH) for the period before and after the opening of the border between Germany and the Czech Republic (1980-2001) I shed light on the development of wages. Both German employees and Czech commuters in the western German borderland of Bavaria are compared to other domestic and foreign workers. At the beginning of the 1990s, German legislation was relatively unrestrictive, so that it was quite easy for Czech workers to obtain a work permit beyond the border. Most of them had only low education. More than 5% of the eastern Bavarian male, low-skilled workforce was reported Czech in the early 1990s. Surprisingly, precisely in this period German employees seem to have benefi ted from integration, but suffered in the years afterwards, when regulations on labour permits for commuters were far stricter.

Hemoglobin adducts in 1,3-butadiene exposed Czech workers: Female–male comparisons

We previously reported results of a molecular epidemiological study of female and male 1,3-butadiene (BD) exposed Czech workers showing that females appeared to absorb or metabolize less BD per unit exposure concentration than did males, based on metabolite concentrations in urine (Chem. Biol. Interact. 166 (2007) 63–77). However, that unexpected observation could not be verified at the time because the only additional BD metabolite measurement attempted was for 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB) as reflected in specific N,N[2,3-dihydroxy-1,4-butyl]valine ( pyr-Val) hemoglobin adduct concentrations, which were not quantifiable in any subject with the method then employed. Neither somatic gene mutations nor chromosome aberrations were associated with BD exposure levels in that study, consistent with findings in an earlier Czech study of males only. We have since measured production and accumulation of the 1,2-dihydroxy-3,4-epoxybutane (EBD) metabolite as reflected in N-[2,3,4-trihydroxy-butyl]valine (THB-Val) hemoglobin adduct concentrations. The mean THB-Val concentration was significantly higher in exposed males than in control males (922.3 pmol/g and 275.5 pmol/g, respectively), but exposed and control females did not differ significantly (224.5 pmol/g and 181.1 pmol/g, respectively). In both the control and exposed groups mean THB-Val concentrations were significantly higher for males than females. THB-Val concentrations were significantly correlated with mean 8-h TWA exposures for both males and females, but the rate of increase with increasing BD exposure was significantly lower for females. THB-Val concentrations also increased with increasing urine M2 metabolite [isomeric mixture of 1-hydroxy-2-{N-actylcysteinyl}-3-butene and 2-hydroxy-1-{N-acetylcysteinyl}-3-butene] concentrations in both sexes but the rate of increase was also lower in females than in males. There were no significant correlations between THB-Val concentrations and either somatic gene mutations or chromosome aberrations in either males or females. These results using another biomarker to measure a second metabolite of BD support the original conclusion that females absorb or metabolize less BD than males per unit exposure and indicate that the size of the difference increases with exposure. This observation in humans differs from findings in rodents where at prolonged exposures to high BD levels the females form higher amounts of hemoglobin adducts than do males, a difference that disappears at shorter duration lower exposure levels, while female susceptibility to BD induced mutations and tumorgenesis in rodents appears to persist at all BD exposure levels.

Molecular epidemiological studies in 1,3-butadiene exposed Czech workers: Female–male comparisons

Results of a recent molecular epidemiological study of 1,3-butadiene (BD) exposed Czech workers, conducted to compare female to male responses, have confirmed and extended the findings of a previously reported males only study (HEI Research Report 116, 2003). The initial study found that urine concentrations of the metabolites 1,2-dihydroxy-4-(acetyl) butane (M1) and 1-dihydroxy-2-(N-acetylcysteinyl)-3-butene (M2) and blood concentrations of the hemoglobin adducts N-[2-hydroxy-3-butenyl] valine (HB-Val) and N-[2,3,4-trihydroxy-butyl] valine (THB-Val) constitute excellent biomarkers of exposure, both being highly correlated with BD exposure levels, and that GST genotypes modulate at least one metabolic pathway, but that irreversible genotoxic effects such as chromosome aberrations and HPRT gene mutations are neither associated with BD exposure levels nor with worker genotypes (GST [glutathione-S-transferase]-M1, GSTT1, CYP2E1 (5' promoter), CYP2E1 (intron 6), EH [epoxide hydrolase] 113, EH139, ADH [alcohol dehydrogenase]2 and ADH3). The no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) for chromosome aberrations and HPRT mutations was 1.794 mg/m(3) (0.812 ppm)--the mean exposure level for the highest exposed worker group in this initial study. The second Czech study, reported here, initiated in 2003, included 26 female control workers, 23 female BD exposed workers, 25 male control workers and 30 male BD exposed workers (some repeats from the first study). Multiple external exposure measurements (10 full 8-h shift measures by personal monitoring per worker) over a 4-month period before biological sample collections showed that BD workplace levels were lower than in the first study. Mean 8-h TWA exposure levels were 0.008 mg/m(3) (0.0035 ppm) and 0.397 mg/m(3) (0.180 ppm) for female controls and exposed, respectively, but with individual single 8-h TWA values up to 9.793 mg/m(3) (4.45 ppm) in the exposed group. Mean male 8-h TWA exposure levels were 0.007 mg/m(3) (0.0032 ppm) and 0.808 mg/m(3) (0.370 ppm) for controls and exposed, respectively; however, the individual single 8-h TWA values up to 12.583 mg/m(3) (5.72 ppm) in the exposed group. While the urine metabolite concentrations for both M1 and M2 were elevated in exposed compared to control females, the differences were not significant, possibly due to the relatively low BD exposure levels. For males, with greater BD exposures, the concentrations of both metabolites were significantly elevated in urine from exposed compared to control workers. As in the first study, urine metabolite excretion patterns in both sexes revealed conjugation to be the minor detoxification pathway (yielding the M2 metabolite) but both M1 and M2 concentration values were lower in males in this second study compared to their concentrations in the first, reflecting the lower external exposures of males in this second study compared to the first. Of note, females showed lower concentrations of both M1 and M2 metabolites in the urine per unit of BD exposure than did males while exhibiting the same M1/(M1+M2) ratio, reflecting the same relative utilization of the hydrolytic (producing M1) and the conjugation (producing M2) detoxification pathways as males. Assays for the N,N-(2,3-dihydroxy-1,4-butadyl) valine (pyr-Val) hemoglobin (Hb) adduct, which is specific for the highly genotoxic 1,2,3,4-diepoxybutane (DEB) metabolite of BD, have been conducted on blood samples from all participants in this second Czech study. Any adduct that may have been present was below the limits of quantitation (LOQ) for this assay for all samples, indicating that production of this important BD metabolite in humans is below levels produced in both mice and rats exposed to as little as 1.0 ppm BD by inhalation (J.A. Swenberg, M.G. Bird, R.J. Lewis, Future directions in butadiene risk assessment, Chem. Biol. Int. (2006), this issue). Results of assays for the HB-Val and THB-Val hemoglobin adducts are pending. HPRT mutations, determined by cloning assays, and multiple measures of chromosome level changes (sister-chromatid exchanges [SCE], aberrations determined by conventional methods and FISH) again showed no associations with BD exposures, confirming the findings of the initial study that these irreversible genotoxic changes do not arise in humans occupationally exposed to low levels of BD. Except for lower production of both urine metabolites in females, no female-male differences in response to BD exposures were detected in this study. As in the initial study, there were no significant genotype associations with the irreversible genotoxic endpoints. However, as in the first, differences in the metabolic detoxification of BD as reflected in relative amounts of the M1 and M2 urinary metabolites were associated with genotypes, this time both GST and EH.

Cancer risk assessment for 1,3-butadiene: Data integration opportunities

The US Environmental Protection Agency recently released its new guidelines for carcinogen risk assessment together with supplemental guidance for assessing susceptibility from early-life exposure to carcinogens. In particular, these guidelines encourage the use of mechanistic data in support of dose-response characterization at doses below those at which an increase in tumor frequency over background levels might be detected. In this context of the utility of mechanistic data for human cancer risk assessment, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) has developed a human relevance framework (HRF) that can be used to assess the plausibility of a mode of action (MoA) described for animal models operating in humans. The MoA is described as a sequence of key events and processes that result in an adverse outcome. A key event is a measurable precursor step that is in itself a necessary element of the MoA or is a bioindicator for such an element. A number of cellular and molecular perturbations have been identified as key events whereby DNA-reactive chemicals can produce tumors. These include DNA adducts in target tissues, gene mutations and/or chromosomal alterations in target tissues and enhanced cell proliferation in target tissues. This type of data integration approach to quantitative cancer risk assessment can be applied to 1,3-butadiene, for example, using data on biomarkers in exposed Czech workers [1]. For this study, an extensive range of biomarkers of exposure and response was assessed, including: polymorphisms in metabolizing enzymes; urinary concentrations of several metabolites of 1,3-butadiene; hemoglobin adducts; HPRT mutations in T-lymphocytes; chromosomal aberrations by FISH and conventional staining procedures; sister chromatid exchanges. Exposure levels were monitored in a comprehensive fashion. For risk assessment purposes, these data need to be considered in the context of how they inform the MoA for leukemia, the tumor type reported to be increased in synthetic rubber workers exposed to 1,3-butadiene. Also, for the HRF it is necessary to establish key events for a MoA in rodents for the induction of tumors by 1,3-butadiene. There is clearly a species difference in sensitivity to tumor induction, with mice being much more sensitive than rats; key events need to explain this difference. For butadiene, the MoA is DNA-reactivity and subsequent mutagenicity and so following the EPA's cancer guidelines, a linear extrapolation is used from the point of departure (POD), unless additional data support a non-linear extrapolation. For the present case, the human bioindicator data are not informative as far as dose-response characterization is concerned. Mouse chromosome aberration data for in vivo exposures might be used for establishing a POD, with linear extrapolation from this POD. The available cytogenetic data from rodent studies appear to be sufficiently extensive and consistent for this to be a viable approach. This approach of using MoA and key events to establish the human relevance can lead to the development of specific informative bioindicators of response that can be used as surrogates to predict the shape of the tumor dose response curve at low doses. Truly informative predictors of tumor responses should be able to provide estimates of human tumor frequencies at low, environmental exposures to 1,3-butadiene.

Synchronization of Distant Clocks by Television Pulse Comparisons

The problem of synchronizing clocks at a distance has been solved both by the use of travelling clocks (e.g. caesium beam devices) and by radio transmission of time signals, for which active satellites are used to overcome inherent errors. A group of Czech workers recently developed a method of intra-continental clock comparison which makes use of the properties of domestic television signals. This has been verified under Australian conditions in experiments carried out between Mount Stromlo Observatory and the Division of Applied Physics of the National Standards Laboratory, CSIRO, Sydney, using signals from the Australian Broadcasting Commission transmitter ABWN 5A Wollongong.