Lucie Trlifajova

Text vychází z rozhovorů s lidmi pracujícími na prekérních pozicích. Z nich jsme vybrali několik příkladů, které reprezentují spektrum situací, v nichž se ocitli lidé pracující na nejistých pozicích, kteří byli situací spojenou s pandemií zásadně zasaženi. Od lidí v exekuci, kteří byli ve velmi obtížné situaci již před začátkem pandemie, byť třeba nikdy nebyli klienty sociálních služeb, po pracovníky v turismu nebo kultuře, kteří byli sami sebou i svým okolím vnímáni jako příjmově relativně prosperující a stabilní skupina.
Každému příběhu věnujeme jednu kapitolu, v níž zkušenosti jednotlivých lidí zasazujeme do kontextu strukturálních problémů, s nimiž se potýkají.

Pandemie COVID-1í dopadá nejvíce na skupinu osob, jejichž společným jmenovatelem je, že pracují v tzv. prekérních pracích – tady na lidi pracující na nejistých pozicích, často s nižšími příjmy a nižší mírou sociální ochrany. Jsou to skupiny, které běžně nejsou v českých večejných politikách vnímány jako ohrožené, i když co do přístupu k sociální ochraně jsou často v horším postavení než zaměstnanci. V  textu se zaměřujeme právě na tyto skupiny pracovníků. Ukazujeme, jak většina podpůrných opatření původně směřovala k  zaměstnancům a větším firmám, zatímco drobní podnikatelé museli na podporu čekat déle a  lidé pracující formou dohod dokonce až do srpna a jak k těmto podporám musely vznikat speciální zákony a programy. Problematické nicméně nebylo jen to, jakou podporu mohly tyto osoby čerpat a jak rychle (nebo „pomalu“) se k nim podpora dostala (Kapitola I), ale také to, že podmínky jejího čerpání byly často nesrozumitelné, nejednoznačné a proměnlivé (Kapitola II) a  že některé ohrožené skupiny byly z podpory zcela vyloučeny (Kapitola III). Důsledkem těchto problémů bylo nejen finanční ohrožení sledovaných skupin, ale i celková nejistota, která výrazně komplikovala možnosti řešení jejich situací.

Dlouhodobá nezaměstnanost bývá často interpretována jako důsledek neochoty jednotlivců najít a udržet si práci. Lidé, kteří v současné situaci obtížně nacházejí uplatnění na trhu práce, se však často potýkají s mnoha problémy, které jim brání získat a udržet si zaměstnání.
Bariéry ztěžující zaměstnání vznikají na různých úrovních a jejich účinky se vzájemně násobí. Abychom dovedli situaci těchto lidí řešit efektivně, musíme jim nabídnout podporu, která jim pomůže tyto bariéry překonávat.

Dlouhodobá nezaměstnanost není vždy trvalým stavem. Analýza pracovních trajektorií dnešních dlouhodobě nezaměstnaných ukazuje, že u řady lidí v posledních letech docházelo k růstu nejistoty na pracovním trhu, v jejímž důsledku se ocitli v kruhu střídajících se dočasných prací za nízkou mzdu a nezaměstnanosti.
Nesouvislé pracovní trajektorie neznamenají pouze nestabilní příjem, ale ovlivňují řadu dalších oblastí života – například dluhy, jistotu bydlení nebo duševní zdraví. Lidem, kteří dosahují jen na nízko hodnocené práce nebo jsou v exekuci, legální práce často neumožňuje vymanit se z chudoby, i přesto však většinou chtějí z různých důvodů pracovat.

Přestože v posledních letech klesala nezaměstnanost i počet materiálně deprivovaných osob, stále platí, že zaměstnání nepřináší automaticky ekonomickou stabilitu. Podíl osob, které se v dnešní době potýkají s nějakou formou ekonomické nejistoty, je mnohonásobně vyšší než podíl nezaměstnaných.
Sociální dávky, které mají sloužit k prevenci a řešení chudoby, míří často pouze na nejohroženější skupiny obyvatel. Podpora domácností, které se potýkají s různými formami ekonomické nejistoty, je přitom velmi omezená. To může přispívat k pocitu nespravedlnosti a v konečném důsledku k delegi- timizaci systému dávek.

Personal debt is a device increasing one’s agency but embedded within moral and legal frameworks that constructs people as individualised financial subjects. This article aims to enrich research on the state role in (subject) financialisation through a focus on personal debt governance modes as constructed in policymaker discourse on the state role in personal debt regulation. Our argument is contextualised in the Czech Republic, where, in 2021, 10 per cent of the adult population faced legal debt enforcement, significantly disrupting their economic situation. Through an analysis of 84 parliamentary debate transcripts and 32 regulatory impact assessment documents related to consumer credit and debt relief laws, we illustrate the ambivalence and complexity of debt governance and state roles. Although two main state roles were enacted—punitive and protective—the policymaker discourse forms a continuum of sorts, blending various moral logics, ascribing multiple responsibilities (individual, state and private actors) and intensively negotiating the category of debtor deservingness. We argue that by accenting financial education as a tool to solve perceived market failures (predatory lending), the financialised logic and structures are reaffirmed, albeit leaving certain discursive spaces for renegotiation and potential resistance against such state functions.

The text analyses the processes of invisibilisation and racialisation of poverty and their impact on the construction of the systems of social protection in the Czech Republic.
Originally published in Czech under the title "O ekonomických periferiích a omezování sociálního státu v Česku"  in a book "Demokracie-jak dál: Rizika a výzvy pro Česko a svět" (Praha: Vyšehrad, ed. F. Outrata).

One of the core dilemmas of current welfare politics is the question of how to ensure social protection while providing incentives to seek employment at the same time. A way to address this dilemma is to base policies and policy models on the principle notion that ‘work must pay’; in other words, income from employment should be higher than the social support of the unemployed. However, how accurately do these approaches and models represent the reality of benefit recipients, particularly in the context of increased employment precariousness? In this article, we use the cases of two disadvantaged regions in Czech Republic in order to contrast the presumptions of ‘making work pay’ policies with the everyday experience of welfare recipients. As we show, their situations are strongly shaped by current changes in the labour market, particularly the precarious character of accessible employment and high levels of indebtedness. The modelling of financial employment incentives and the public policies based on these calculations often do not correspond with the reality of welfare recipients that are often cycling in and out of precarious forms of employment. However, the authors’ main claim is that the very idea of the ‘work must pay’ approach focuses on the wrong question. A truly functioning financial incentive would need to focus not solely on the difference in income between those who work and those who do not work, but rather should analyse what type of arrangements allow working households to rise permanently above the poverty line.

One of the core dilemmas of current welfare politics is the question of how to ensure social protection while providing incentives to seek employment at the same time. A way to address this dilemma is to base policies and policy models on the principle notion that ‘work must pay’; in other words, income from employment should be higher than the social support of the unemployed. However, how accurately do these approaches and models represent the reality of benefit recipients, particularly in the context of increased employment precariousness? In this article, we use the cases of two disadvantaged regions in Czech Republic in order to contrast the presumptions of ‘making work pay’ policies with the everyday experience of welfare recipients. As we show, their situations are strongly shaped by current changes in the labour market, particularly the precarious character of accessible employment and high levels of indebtedness. The modelling of financial employment incentives and the public policies based on these calculations often do not correspond with the reality of welfare recipients that are often cycling in and out of precarious forms of employment. However, the authors’ main claim is that the very idea of the ‘work must pay’ approach focuses on the wrong question. A truly functioning financial incentive would need to focus not solely on the difference in income between those who work and those who do not work, but rather should analyse what type of arrangements allow working households to rise permanently above the poverty line.

This article examines how experience with precarious work influences the notions of control and empowerment among female migrant workers. Instead of focusing on migrant workers as victims of a continuous chain of precarious employment, the article aims to enrich the current knowledge by focusing on the complexity of elements involved in subjective assessments of agency. Based on research of Ukrainian female migrants, we show how precarious jobs can be perceived as enabling, allowing women more control over their lives. To understand these perceptions of agency, we show how important it is to focus on the embeddedness of migrants’ reflective choices in their life trajectories. In the context of migration, this implies a shift in understanding from one in which migrants compare their experience (of labour or gender structures) between country of origin and country of destination towards a more nuanced approach.

This contribution critically assesses the use of the term “socially excluded (Roma) locality” in politics and in the practice of the Czech public policy towards the situation of the Roma minority. The paper first offers an overview of the genesis of the term within the development of Czech public policy towards Roma. In its conceptual part, it discusses its relation to theoretical concepts of ghetto and social exclusion. An empirical study of four localities, which were denoted as socially excluded, reveals a surprisingly great variety of conditions within these places. The authors argue that there is a tendency of an inflationary use of this term, which is guided by the presence of Roma while often abstracting from the issue of social exclusion.

Personal debt is a device increasing one’s agency but embedded within moral and legal frameworks that constructs people as individualised financial subjects. This article aims to enrich research on the state role in (subject) financialisation through a focus on personal debt governance modes as constructed in policymaker discourse on the state role in personal debt regulation. Our argument is contextualised in the Czech Republic, where, in 2021, 10 per cent of the adult population faced legal debt enforcement, significantly disrupting their economic situation. Through an analysis of 84 parliamentary debate transcripts and 32 regulatory impact assessment documents related to consumer credit and debt relief laws, we illustrate the ambivalence and complexity of debt governance and state roles. Although two main state roles were enacted—punitive and protective—the policymaker discourse forms a continuum of sorts, blending various moral logics, ascribing multiple responsibilities (individual, state and private actors) and intensively negotiating the category of debtor deservingness. We argue that by accenting financial education as a tool to solve perceived market failures (predatory lending), the financialised logic and structures are reaffirmed, albeit leaving certain discursive spaces for renegotiation and potential resistance against such state functions.

This article examines how experience with precarious work influences the notions of control and empowerment among female migrant workers. Instead of focusing on migrant workers as victims of a continuous chain of precarious employment, the article aims to enrich the current knowledge by focusing on the complexity of elements involved in subjective assessments of agency. Based on research of Ukrainian female migrants, we show how precarious jobs can be perceived as enabling, allowing women more control over their lives. To understand these perceptions of agency, we show how important it is to focus on the embeddedness of migrants’ reflective choices in their life trajectories. In the context of migration, this implies a shift in understanding from one in which migrants compare their experience (of labour or gender structures) between country of origin and country of destination towards a more nuanced approach.

The article examines how neoliberal reforms can pave the way for
welfare racialisation, turning a delegitimised minimum-income scheme into a tool for racial-hierarchy enforcement. We follow the development of Czech minimum-income scheme legislation from 2014 to 2021, after a series of neoliberal (workfarist) reforms reinforced the restrictive and controlling aspects of the system. The analysed period is characterised by the greater involvement of politicians representing the poorest regions of the Czech Republic and by calls for further restrictions. Analysing parliamentary debates from this period, we show that the delegitimised social system is no longer understood as a tool of social protection or even labour market inclusion; rather, it has become a tool of ethnic hierarchisation, which particularly resonates in the context of perceived socioeconomic insecurity. We propose the term ‘post-neoliberal ethnic welfare’ to describe this emerging system, which derives its legitimacy from neoliberal categories of deservingness and reduces social-protection systems into a performative tool of control over the Roma population.