BARMETAL: Digitalisation, Automatisation and Decarbonisation: Opportunity for Strengthening Collective Bargaining in the Metal Sector: Czechia Policy Report

The BARMETAL project is aimed at understanding the impacts of the dual transformation involving digitization, automation and decarbonization (DAD), in working conditions and social dialogue within the metal sector. In the report, we describe how social partners responded to DAD challenges and evaluate the role of social dialogue in mitigating the adverse effects of the transformation on working conditions in Czechia. Within the metal industry, specifically understood as the sector processing metal goods, our focus centred on the automotive industry, the largest industrial production sector contributing to 9% of GDP (in the broader sense of supplier-buyer chains), constituting 26% of industrial production, and accounting for 24% of exports. In the first section, we outline current developments in the automotive industry, emphasizing the national and sector-level labour market situations and recent changes. We then provide insights into industrial relations in the country, followed by a description of DAD discourses, policies, and impacts on employment, drawing on stakeholder interviews and available policy documents. The fourth section zooms in on responses to DAD challenges through collective bargaining at the sector level, subsequently delving into the company-level experiences and practices of collective bargaining examined through three case studies in automotive companies. The final section analyses findings from interviews and secondary sources. This report is based on 15 interviews conducted between June and November 2023, with interview durations ranging from 45 to 90 minutes, conducted in person or via online calls (see the list of interviewees stakeholders in Annex 1). In addition to interviews, Charles University along with CELSI and EUROPEUM2 co-organized a roundtable of 13 regional stakeholders in the Moravian-Silesian region hosted by Hyundai Nošovice in Czechia in November 2023. The purpose of the event was to get insights into the regional transformations and actors involved. Knowledge gathered during the roundtable is also used as a source of evidence in the report. Secondary sources, including academic literature, reports, background documents, and media reports, complement the evidence gathered during fieldwork activities.