Report on the workshop, Precarious Work, current situation and good practice examples

In cooperation with Center for Peace Studies and as part of the Commonfare project (commonfare.net), experts from academic, non-governmental, governmental and professional spheres gathered on 15 April 2019 to discuss labor precariousness in the Czech Republic and how it can be tackled through theory and practice of social businesses.

The workshop lasted for 4 hours and took place at the premises of Charles University, Faculty of Humanities with attendance of 20 persons.

Maja Pleić from Center for Peace Studies presented the Horizon 2020 project that Commonfare is integral part of. Especially interested was data from Croatia about labor situation at the local job market.

Marie Dohnalová from Faculty of Humanities presented the latest data on social entrepreneurship in the Czech Republic most of which have never been published before. She stressed the ambiguity of the concept of social business in the Czech legal terminology.

Šárka Homfray from Union of State Employees and Organizations talked about variety of precariousness at work that are often hidden such as zero hours contract, etc. She also wondered about the future form of work and what it will bring to new generations.

Lenka Vrbová from NGO Homelike, which employs homeless women together with her colleague who is a homeless woman presented the difficulties they encounter when employing homeless women with debts. They also spoke how dignifying it was for homeless women to have their own community center and kitchen where they often feel respected for the first time in their lives.

Karel Schwarz, president of the European Anti-Poverty Network, spoke about especially difficult position of people with debts, in so-called liquidation process. This phenomenon affects numerous people in the Czech Republic where their possibility to work is seriously hindered by Liquidation Offices deducting debt, fees and interest rates from their salaries. He also mentioned that help to disadvantaged communities must be complex and provided locally not only in Prague and from Prague.

The questions from the audience reacted to each presenter and presentation with people mostly asking about possibilities of social entrepreneurship.

Catering was provided by social business Ethnocatering, a company that employs migrant women.  

The Commonfare initiative was presented to two groups of Czech and international students (cca 15 persons) during regular lectures of the Department of Civil Society Studies.

Commonfare.net is developed thanks to the project PIE News that has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under agreement no. 687922