The mayors of Ústěk have a double. With them, the cancellation of the labor office is postponed

“The negotiations were relatively stormy. But we are a rough country and we are used to telling each other things straight. The mayors said it bluntly,” said the governor of the Ústí Region Richard Brabec (ANO) after the meeting. “The Ústí Region is very specific and deserves specific treatment, because things that can work relatively easily in the rest of the republic do not work easily here in areas with a high index of social exclusion,” he added.

The Labor Office wanted to cancel a total of seven branches in the Ústí Region. By the end of June of this year, however, it will close only three compared to the original plan. The remaining four are scheduled to end at the end of September, if in the meantime it turns out that their clients manage their affairs in another way, i.e. digitally, through the Czech Post or at another branch that will not be closed.

“We agreed to postpone the closing date precisely so that we would have time to discuss it with the clients, teach them how to use digital tools and possibly check that submissions to the Czech Post are going well,” said Daniel Krištof, head of the Labor Office of the Czech Republic.

The postponement of the closing date concerns the branches in Šluknov in the Děčín region, in Štětí and Úštěk in the Litoměřice region and in Vejprty in the Chomutovsk region. In the other three cities, in Česká Kamenice in Děčínsk, in Libochovice in Litoměřice and in Jirkov in Chomutovska, the branches will close on June 30. Their employees will move to other branches and the residents of these cities will have to decide how they will manage their affairs at the office.

The mayors of the cities where the closure of the branch is postponed praise the negotiated agreement. “If we have to come to terms with the fact that the branches are to disappear, postponing the closure is a reasonable compromise for us and gaining time to evaluate how the workers and clients of the employment office deal with it or whether it will significantly burden our social workers in the municipalities. ” said the mayor of Štětí, Miroslav Andrt, about the agreed compromise.

Štětí would like to agree with the labor office that its workers will travel to the city if necessary. “Similarly, we cooperate with the tax office, for which we set aside space at the time of filing tax returns and they come to us and are available to people. So maybe we’ll create a similar model, and I’m grateful for the extra time, because now we can actually act on how it could look and work,” added the mayor.

The head of the Labor Office also said on Thursday in Ústí nad Labem that the cancellation of branches is not a cost-saving measure, but that the office is doing it for security reasons. “There were roughly twice as many attacks per employee in disturbed locations as elsewhere. These range from verbal attacks, threats to physical assaults. It is true that we can better secure large branches, whether it’s safety glass, emergency buttons, or the newly competitive security agency,” emphasized Krištof.

But the mayors objected to the argumentation of dangers at the meeting. “Across the represented cities, we agreed that we do not accept the security argument. The office relies on some national data, but for example in Štětí we have a branch secured with counters according to standards, with a calling system and an emergency button towards the city police,” the mayor from Štětí countered.

The closure may still be postponed in other regions. “Maybe I will go to the Karlovy Vary region. I don’t have an exact number for all regions, but emotionally in roughly 80 percent of the cases, the agreement with the mayor went quickly and we have already agreed on a final date, and in 20 percent, they are born in a bit of pain,” added Daniel Krištof.