Project supports social dialogue

Over 2002-3, a project under the EU's PHARE programme is providing support for the development of social dialogue in Slovakia. It focuses on bipartite social dialogue and collective bargaining and issues such as the establishment of works councils in two pilot sectors - chemicals and construction. A key feature of the project is the transfer of knowledge from the the current EU and the training of Slovak social partner representatives.

Slovakia is one of the EU candidate countries that have asked for support within the framework of the EU's PHARE programme in the reinforcement of social dialogue and collective bargaining at all relevant levels and in the implementation of relevant EU Directives into national legislation. Thus, in 2001, representatives from Slovakia, the Netherlands and the UK concluded a 'twinning' covenant for PHARE project SR 0006.01. The twinning involves Dutch and British experts from governments, employers' organisations and trade unions transmitting their knowledge and experience to their Slovak colleagues. The project aims to achieve the following results:

• reinforced permanent social dialogue at national, sector and company level;

• increased knowledge of EU decision-making processes and of the implementation of EU Directives;

• a reinforced process of collective bargaining at central, sector and company level (SK0210102F);

• improved 'capacity-building' of each party in the bipartite and the tripartite social dialogue;

• improved positions for employers' organisations and trade unions (SK0208102F);

• proper implementation of relevant EU Directives into Slovak legislation, with an emphasis on the European Works Councils Directive (94/45/EC);

• implementation and reinforcement of social dialogue at company level;

• the involvement of works councils; and

• training of trainers in relation to different project components.

The project focuses on two selected pilot sectors - the chemicals industry and construction. In order to initiate, coordinate, stimulate and organise project activities, two 'pre-accession advisers' (PAA) are stationed at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (Ministerstvo práce, sociálnych vecí a rodiny Slovenskej republiky, MPSVR SR) - Roel van de Waal of the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and Graham Rainsforth of the UK Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas). A contact group, made up of representatives of the social partners from two pilot sectors and other interested parties, and a high-level steering committee reflecting the interests of stakeholders within the project and evaluating its progress, were also established.

The start-up conference for the project took place on 19 April 2002 in Bratislava and was attended by around 100 delegates. The purpose of the conference was to present formally the project's 'inception report' to the delegates, but it also included inputs from leading representatives of the Ministry and contributions from Dutch and UK experts on the state of social dialogue in their respective countries. An evaluation of the conference by delegates and the media coverage it received suggested that it had been a successful event. Soon after the conference, on 25-26 April 2002, a two-day training course on social partner organisations' membership and services was held. This training, led by employers' organisation and trade union experts from the Netherlands and UK, was aimed at strengthening of the position of the social partners in Slovakia. Topics discussed included membership levels, services provided, funding mechanism and increasing public awareness.

It is agreed by all social partners that communication is an integral part of the social dialogue. To raise the importance of this issue, a parallel project has been created focusing on the communication and public relations strategies of the social partners. Under this initiative a separate communication plan has been drawn up and a specialist subgroup formed, with representatives of the Confederation of Trade Unions of the Slovak Republic (Konfederácia odborových zvazov Slovenskej republiky, KOZ SR), the Federation of Employers' Association of the Slovak Republic (Asociácia zamestnávatelských zvazov a zdruzení Slovenskej republiky, AZZZ SR) and the Ministry. Alongside other activities, two study visits to the Netherlands were organised in 2002 and participants in these visits have developed their own action plans. These action plans are currently in the process of implementation at sector and company levels.

One aim of the PHARE project is to increase the quality of the social dialogue at sector and company level. The main activity to deliver this result is the joint training of social partners involved in collective bargaining and social dialogue, and a two-week training cycle has been designed. The first week seeks to improve the skills and techniques required for effective bargaining and the second week concentrates on specific areas of knowledge. These areas included the role of European Works Councils, national works councils and their relationship to trade unions, collective agreements and the position of equal opportunities in collective bargaining. By the end of November 2002, approximately 65 representatives had attended the residential courses and received this training. Consequently, participants elaborated action plans and started to work on the dissemination of good practice at sector and company levels. Initial assessment by the participants and foreign trainers indicated that these courses had been extremely useful and successful.

The achievements of the project were evaluated by the steering committee in early December 2002, which recommended the establishment of a tripartite subgroup to explore the feasibility of establishing a core of Slovak trainers to carry on the development of the PHARE project when it concludes in November 2003. This training resource, which has been supported by materials and expertise supplied by the Netherlands and UK, aims to provide the capacity to continue to promote social dialogue in the future and may also be used as a platform for other activities as Slovakia develops within the EU.

Recently around 20 delegates from the two pilot project sectors – chemicals and construction – and from the Ministry made a study visit to the EU institutions, the Netherlands and the UK. These delegates are to take an active role in the improvement and strengthening of the social dialogue and collective bargaining in Slovakia, and they reported back on their experiences to a conference on the future of social dialogue in Slovakia, held on 8 April 2003 in Bratislava. The presidents of KOZ SR (Ivan Saktor) and AZZZ SR (Michal Lach) and the Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (Ludovít Kaník) took part in the conference and discussed issues related to the future development of social dialogue in Slovakia.

In May 2003, a 'training of trainers' course was organised. In cooperation with the local staff, two trainers, one from Acas in the UK and one from the Netherlands, trained Slovak social partner representatives who are to become professional trainers in the field of social dialogue.