English summary

*  Mr. Yasuhiro Takahashi, CEO of TPCA Toyota Peugeot Citroën, shared a few key thoughts in an interview with Pavlína Kalousová, Executive Director of Czech Donors Forum. “A few different things awaited me here – like a slightly different style of management, for example,” he comments on the specifics of the Czech corporate culture. “The advantage is that we apply the Toyota production system in TPCA. There are three cultures merging together in TPCA: Japanese, French, and of course, Czech. From each of them we try to take the best and create a specific corporate culture.”
In respect to CSR the role of CEO could be described as follows: “Our role is to show the direction, motivate employees to become involved in such projects, and last but not least, find financial reserves for these projects. Personally, I like to get involved. In tree planting, for example. Together with our employees we planted trees. I always like to say a few words when new projects that we support are being launched. By participating I encourage and spirit up those who are actually executing the project.
 “The TPCA CSR strategy consists of three key areas: personnel policy, strategic approach towards the environment and support of the region,” explains Yasuhiro Takahashi. “In respect to personnel policy we pay special attention to equal opportunities, occupational health and safety, equal remuneration and employees’ motivation to engage in the company’s leisure time activities. We request outstanding performance from our employees, therefore, the care we provide must also be above-average. In our opinion, caring for employees only when they are at work is not enough. We also have to be interested in their “after-work” life, i.e. if their families are happy in the Kolín region, how their life is like. And we do give ear to our employees, we conduct an extensive bi-annual survey that gives us an idea what our employees wish for. Based on the conclusions of the previous survey we changed our remuneration system and developed extended management training, for example.”
 “The truth is that smaller companies cannot afford to invest as much as we can into environmental protection. But being an environmentally friendly production plant is not only about making huge investments. Take waste sorting, for example. If every company in the Czech Republic ran even a tiny ecological project, the results would be tremendous for your nature.”
* In view of the crisis every fifth Czech wants companies to do more CSR – this is the outcome of a public survey done by Factum Invenio for Czech Donors Forum. Czech citizens assume that beside other areas the current financial crisis will also affect socially responsible behaviour of companies and their support of various charity projects. Two thirds of people are convinced that the crisis has an impact on socially responsible behaviour of companies. This answer is more frequently given by university educated people with higher income in the age category 45 – 59. Nevertheless, one sixth of people remain optimistic and believe that the crisis will not have a critical impact on the companies’ support of charitable projects. This group includes especially people with basic education but also people with the highest income exceeding 35 thousand CZK. None the less, almost half of the people are convinced that companies should support CSR projects as much as they did in the past. On the other hand, one fifth of people would appreciate, if companies could provide more extensive support to such projects. There were, however, also some respondents, who said, that these activities should be cut back during the crisis.
As part of their socially responsible behaviour businesses should support especially health programmes, social care and humanitarian aid, i.e. areas that may be hit by the crisis and have been traditionally preferred. Environmental protection and education were also important for the respondents. Least frequently projects supporting culture and leisure time were mentioned. In this sense the preferences remain basically the same like in the previous surveys. The areas named as priorities are in the long term viewed as the areas requiring most support by the general public; and the public wants companies to direct their support into these areas, at the same time, members of the public make their own contributions through various charitable events to support them as well.
The survey also included questions concerning the unemployed and laid-off employees – the Czech public is of the opinion that companies should somehow take care of the employees they had to lay-off due to the financial crisis. The idea that businesses should run some kind of care programmes for their former employees is shared by respondents within all groups.

* In the legal aid column we discuss whether employers may order their employees to work in favour of a charitable cause for a certain period of time, and what rights and obligations are defined for the employer and employees by the Labour Code in this respect, i.e. transfer of an employee to alternative work, which is considered a change of an employment contract.
Aside from the cases specified by the Labour Code, § 41, (1) (2), an employer is authorized to transfer an employee to alternative work, if the employee has temporarily lost the prerequisites laid down in other statutory provisions for performance of the agreed work, however, such a transfer must not exceed 30 working days per calendar year. At the same time, an employer is obliged to make sure that the work that an employee is transferred to will be suitable for the employee especially in respect to the employee’s health condition and abilities.
In another situation, that deserves to be mentioned, an employer may transfer employees to alternative work in case of the so-called force majeure. The employer may transfer employees to another work than had been previously agreed on without employees’ consent in order to avert extraordinary situation, natural disaster or other imminent danger, or to mitigate their immediate consequences.
On the contrary, an employer must obtain employee’s consent before transferring him/her to other work than the job agreed on in his/her employment contract in case the employee is unable to perform his/her job due to downtime or stoppage of work caused by unfavourable weather conditions.
* In her contribution discussing CSR and the crisis Simona Kaňoková of ČEZ draws attention to certain trends expected in view of the current situation and its development. “The businesses are very likely to be much more careful in selecting their NGO partners and will want them to be more flexible and professional. CSR activities directed towards own employees will be an important measure: and their growth may be expected during the crisis.
In Western countries we can already see a significant expansion of corporate volunteering, for example. How can a company be strengthened by it? First, monetary gifts provided by companies to non-government organizations may not be well received by employees in the time when salaries stagnate or may be decreasing. Through volunteering in the non-profit sector, however, employees may get fully involved in philanthropic activities and do good deeds without being remorseful about tightening their or their families’ belts.
Second, in difficult times help from other people is twice as much appreciated, and also twice as many people feel obliged to use their knowledge and talent in favour of those who have been hit hard by the crisis. Systematic organization of corporate volunteering accommodates the needs of both parties without requesting significantly higher costs from the company.
And third, even though companies tend to focus primarily on their everyday operation in a crisis, their philanthropic programme may become an important investment into their future.”

* „The principle is simple,” explains the success of the project “Promoting Good Entrepreneurship” Pavlína Kalousová of Czech Donors Forum, the main organizer of the project. “Managers of non-government organizations that succeed in a selection process have an opportunity to attend a series of seminars free of charge. In the seminars they learn among other things about project management principles, marketing, PR and communication, etc. The speakers are business managers who share their knowledge and experience with the organizations. Together, they all have a chance to learn more about situation in the different environments, in fact they learn from one another.” Managers representing participating companies lead the seminars and are also ready to provide the NGOs with consultation and advice.

Misja den Haan, the head of the Netherlands-Czech Chamber of Commerce, one of the project partners, adds: “Together with our member companies we agree that it is important to contribute to the development of the civic society in the Czech Republic. It’s because we also do our business here. If we want to be a valid member of the society, we should not only make money here, we also have to give something back and contribute to its development.”
 “The main reason why we decided to support this project is that it is practical and delivers results,” adds Simon Rawlence, a director of the British Chamber of Commerce, another project partner. “Instead of organizing seminars or conferences we joined a running project developing non-government organizations.”