photo: Agáta Michalová for PrahaIN.cz/Boa Vista, Cape Verde
Our editors have been alerted several times to the order of the state enterprise Lesy České republiky. At first glance, it looked like the company was paying more than a hundred thousand vacations to its employees. Two officials repeatedly drew our attention to the documents.
The Forests of the Czech Republic order from the DER Touristik group, which brings together the best-known travel agencies in the Czech tourism industry, is dated March 8 this year and is available to PrahaIN.cz. The subject is a one-week vacation for two employees, a married couple, in July of this year on the Cape Verde Islands, worth 126,970 crowns.
First, we looked at the individual travel agencies that belong to the group to see if the price corresponds to the mentioned weekly stay. According to the catalogues, this is one of the highest holiday prices in this destination.
We turned directly to the press spokesperson to ask what function the spouses perform in the company and whether it is standard to pay them holidays. We thus quoted the questions of two of our sources.
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At first, the spokeswoman answered that the couple were not employees of Lesů ČR. When we sent her the order, she immediately put everything into perspective. “I take back the previous information, it is an employee of our Konopiště Forest Plant,” explained Forestry ČR press spokesperson Eva Jouklová.
The sea in Cape Verde. Author: PrahaIN.cz
“The Konopiště forestry plant annually contributes twelve thousand crowns per person and six thousand crowns per child under the age of 15 to the FKSP, from which it is possible to draw even for vacations, according to the annex to the collective agreement. In total, the company contributed thirty thousand crowns to two employees. After the employees paid 96,970 crowns to the plant’s account as a supplement to the travel agency’s invoice issued in the amount of 126,970 thousand crowns, Lesy ČR paid the entire invoice,” she added.
As she added, employees normally draw from the fund for cultural and social needs, which is completely fine according to the collective agreement.
The cultural and social needs fund is a fund where the employer deposits money, which is subsequently used for the benefits of its employees. This fund is created by all state and non-profit organizations. From them, you can choose specific benefits that are of interest to employees. Most often it is vacation, culture, sport, education or health care.
No other leave order can be found in the contract register.
