Current Affairs Transport Ministry weighs possibility of using prison labourers to help in road and highway construction
The Transport Ministry has raised eyebrows after it was revealed this week it might use non-punitive prison labour on highway and road construction to help curb costs. So far, the ministry is keeping quiet about the exact details but the Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil was more candid, saying the idea of prisoners helping build the country’s throughways was indeed being considered.
Vít Bárta
The concept of prison labour in road construction is nothing new, used in
Communist Czechoslovakia but never in the Czech Republic – one reason
some were taken aback this week when it was confirmed that the Transport
Ministry was considering bringing prison labour on Czech roads back – in
part to bring down highway construction costs. Here’s what Transport
Minister Vít Bárta said earlier this week:
“I can tell you regarding this idea that we conducted a little winter
experiment at Christmas, but I’m afraid I can’t say more yet. We will
make more details available next week.”
By contrast, the head of the Justice Ministry, Jiří Pospíšil, was more
forthcoming, saying that currently new options on employing prisoners from
Czech penitentiaries were being considered and that a pilot programme was
being put together. The Justice Minister:
“We are looking for new means of employing prisoners from Czech jails and one of the possibilities is cooperation with the Transport Ministry. Our economists are crunching the numbers now to see how advantageous such a project would be.”
Potential problems remain which could arguably jettison the plan from Day
One. For one, already some in the construction business are far from
thrilled by the idea.
The president of the Czech Association of Construction Entrepreneurs,
Václav Matyáš, for example, appeared honestly taken aback, saying he
couldn’t imagine how the project would work. According to sources in the
construction business, there are already some 30,000 people the field who
are currently out of work. And that begs the next question: even if used,
how useful would the use of prisoners be? Physical labour in road work is
one thing, but skilled workers, able to handle heavy machinery, are
required more and that is a profile most prisoners wouldn’t fit.
Finally, perhaps the most serious hurdle is the fact that international law bans private firms from using prison labour and it is private firms that are used to extend or build the country’s throughways. How those issues will be resolved at this point are unclear and a final decision is far off.
