The Labour Office of the Czech Republic (Úřad práce ČR) is moving forward with the implementation of its rationalisation plan, which was launched in 2023. The comprehensive changes are intended to transform the office into a modern, effective and customer-oriented organisation that supports people in their job search, helps them to increase their income and overcome difficult life situations. In addition to these aspects, the Office is placing greater emphasis on the safety of its employees, who are increasingly confronted with safety-related incidents and require appropriate working conditions.
Safety considerations and a thorough analysis form the basis for the rationalisation of the employment office’s branch network, with smaller locations in particular being affected – but without job cuts.
The accessibility of services varies greatly in the different regions and the workload is also distributed differently. Employee safety at the smaller sites is one of the biggest challenges, with the number of incidents increasing annually, including direct threats and physical assaults. However, the rationalisation of the branch network does not reduce the availability of services, but actually strengthens them where there is a need. The employees affected will be transferred to central branches, so no redundancies are planned.
The rationalisation mainly affects smaller branches that only operate for a few hours a week and are managed by one or two employees. For larger branches in affected regions, the accessibility of the Labour Office network will be guaranteed.
After the restructuring, the Labour Office in the Czech Republic will continue to provide all services in the regions. The reorganisation will ensure that the locations are more evenly distributed and that all important catchment areas remain covered. For 98% of clients, the journey time by public transport will be a maximum of 45 minutes, while the journey by car will remain within 25 minutes.
The rationalisation of the network has already begun and for the first 15 branches, the employment office has agreed the closure plan with the mayors of the municipalities affected. The heads of the respective district offices will now discuss the planned rationalisation in detail with the affected municipalities and discuss the optimal timing of the individual measures.
In addition to the locations, the employment centre’s services are also available digitally. More and more clients are using the online customer platform ‘Jenda’ or communicating by electronic signature (Elektronický podpis) or via secure data transmission (Datové schránky). In addition, a pilot project is being carried out in cooperation with Czech Post in three regions (Liberec, Ústí nad Labem and Vysočina). Citizens can submit applications for parental, housing and child benefits at a total of 56 post offices. Following the evaluation of this project, the services of the post offices are to be offered nationwide.
