How the grinches stole Christmas

Businesspeople hoping for a relaxing Christmas are in for a hair-pulling time if the social-security office gets its way. A bill waiting for Senate approval would require all companies to put in place new administrative procedures as of Jan. 1 for covering the first 14 days of employee sick leave. One estimate puts the up-front administrative and IT costs of preparing for this change at Kč 50,000-100,000 per company, plus as much as Kč 2,000 per worker in annual administrative costs. It's little consolation that the new sickness payments could be deducted from the 3.3% sickness tax. Ex-Labor Minister Zdeněk Škromach has come to his senses and wants to give companies another year to prepare for this, but the social-security office is playing the Grinch and wants the bill to pass in its current form. Senators can save Christmas by showing that they, and not the bureaucrats, are in control. [Czech Republic ČSSD computers information technology]