Social dialogue and conflict resolution

Kranj, 31 March - 2 April 2004 Kokra Hotel (Brdo Estate) Kranj, Slovenia

National development project - Slovakia

by Ludovít Czíria

Improvement of conflict resolution mechanisms focussing on prevention of individual and collective labour conflicts

The experiences of well-developed countries with the labour conflicts show that no country can be long-term competitive in the global market if has not have an effectively working mechanism for settling individual and collective labour conflicts. Employment disputes are usually very costly to both, to employees and employers as well, so it makes sense to resolve workplace problems before they develop into overt conflicts. The above Action Plan was developed in order to improve the current conflict resolution mechanisms. It is based on the SWOT analysis of current mechanisms used for labour conflicts settlement in Slovakia.

As strengths were identified:

• the number of registered collective disputes per year was relatively stabile or slightly declining in the last years,

• almost all collective conflicts concerning the interests and rights were settled successfully by conciliation and mediation procedures,

• only very few of them needed arbitration procedures,

• neither strikes nor lockouts took place as a consequence of an unsettled collective labour dispute.

As weaknesses were identified:

• several collective labour conflicts not concerning collective bargaining issues were not settled by conciliation, mediation and arbitration procedures; some of them ended by radical social actions of trade union organisations or exceptionally also by employers,

• there are no rules laid down in legislation how to deal with conflicts potentially arising between the Works Councils and the management,

• no labour courts are operating in the country and individual labour conflicts are dealt only by civil courts, which are taking the decisions in cases very slowly; litigation time is even increasing year by year - currently it is approaching almost two years in average.

As opportunities, new challenges and threats were identified:

• growing tensions on the national level between government and trade unions question the ability of the tripartite concertation to settle these disagreements effectively and keep the social peace,

• there is no framework for regular bipartite negotiations between relevant social partners on the national level,

• recently operating Works Councils could face to disagreements and conflicts with the management on local/company level concerning labour/management issues,

• companies in Slovakia will face to increasing competitiveness pressures after entering the EU on 1 May 2004, which will likely result in further needs for companies´ restructuring and rationalisation. New challenges will require effective communication channels between management and employees representatives to prevent and/or settle potential labour conflicts at the local level as much as possible,

• long-lasting litigations of individual labour conflicts at the civil courts can discourage the employees and to reduce their trust in fair implementation of labour legislation in practice.

Considering the above outcomes of the analysis the Action Plan consists of three proposal areas for actions to improve/develop current labour conflict resolution mechanisms applied in Slovakia. The Action plan is open for further discussions between the actors concerned on priorities and implementation issues and can be subject to further changes, if necessary.

Proposals for actions

1. On national level to develop a framework (infrastructure and operational rules) for regular bipartite national level negotiations between main social partners in Slovakia - the KOZ SR and AZZZ SR.

Reasoning: there are no regular meetings on the national level between representatives of the employees and employers. Widely perceived mistake in Slovakia is that the tripartite concertation is the top-level national social dialogue, while this is “only” a consultation body of the government with the social partners. The consequence of this misunderstanding is that the government plays role of “arbitrator” and the social partners are losing very often, even in cases where they could easily find consensus, or the government decides even in the fields where the responsibility is on social partners e.g. minimal wages in private sector, resolution of conflicts between social partners, etc. Another reason for creation of such a national level bipartite social dialogue is the incompatibility of existing model with social dialogue applied on the European level. Actors: KOZ SR and AZZZ SR involved in RHSD.

Time schedule: till the end of the year 2004. The decision should be taken before entering the EU.

2. On company level, to develop the effective communication rules and mechanisms between management and employees representatives in order to prevent the workplace disagreements will become collective or individual labour conflicts. To achieve this goal the following measures are proposed:

- Elaboration of guidelines for procedure in case of conflict between the company/plant management and Works Councils.

Reasoning: according to the current legislation, Works Councils can deal with issues concerning employment and working conditions. In case of conflict between management and Works Councils there are no rules available how to proceed in order to resolve the potential conflict at the local level. It is proposed to consider here the experiences of the EU countries with WCs in this matter.

Main actors: the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic (MPSVR SR) will review the options for implementation of this measure and prepare the guidelines in co-operation with social partners.

Time framework: till the end of 2005.

- Establishing of Joint management - employees representatives committees to make the management of organisational changes influencing employment relationships, working conditions, wages etc. more feasible and to prevent potential local labour conflicts.

Reasoning: several collective labour conflicts in the past rose from company restructuring problems, which had not been managed properly at the local level. Many of them resulted also in public protest actions organised by sectoral and/or company level trade unions concerned.

Main actors: trade unions and employers representatives will discuss the proposal considering their own experiences with current mechanisms for settlement of such collective labour conflicts and will prepare a joint implementation project. It is suggested to implement some pilot projects and evaluate the results. If the outcomes show the effectiveness of this measures further implementation actions will be taken.

Time framework: 2004-2005.

t is assumed that both, the Works Councils and the proposed Joint Committees for change management in companies could play some role also in preventing individual labour conflicts and solving them on the local level as far as possible.

3. Develop the capacities of civil courts´ labour senates in order to reduce the long-lasting litigations in respective cases and issues concerning resolving the individual labour conflicts. It is expected the recent changes in justice legislation could help in this matter.

Reasoning: although the number of individual grievances at the civil courts related to breeching the labour legislation has been reduced, the average litigation time of individual labour conflicts has increased almost twice in the last five years.

Actors: the respective labour senates of civil courts in co-operation with the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic.

Time framework: continuous speed up in 2004-2005.

There is an excellent know-how on effective conflict resolution mechanisms accumulated in EU countries, ILO, USA and other countries as well. It is supposed to utilize the best foreign practices to make the implementation of proposed measures in the Action Plan more effective and feasible. In some cases it will be very useful to ask for technical assistance of the respective foreign experts skilled in effective resolution of individual as well as collective disputes. It is proposed to take actions focused also on improving the awareness of the state bodies, employees and employers’ representatives with regard the importance of the effective mechanisms for labour conflicts resolution, including their prevention. Implementation of special training courses in order to improve the skill of the parties concerned in the area is foreseen too. Co-financing from available EU and Swedish work life funds is expected in implementation project of the Action Plan.