Working conditions

In the field of working conditions, the Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Office for Central and Eastern Europe is currently focusing on wages. After recovering from the initial shocks associated with the transition toward a market economy, most countries in Central and Eastern Europe experienced economic growth and rising wages from the mid-1990s until the economic and financial crisis, which began in 2008. Some countries that were closely intertwined with global trade and foreign banking systems, such as Hungary, were hit by the crisis at the beginning while others like Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, experienced it a little later.  A book on “The Wage Impact of the Crisis in South-East Europe” and a series of working papers on wage developments in the context of the economic and financial crisis were published in 2012. One of the major challenges in Central and Eastern Europe is equal remuneration for work of equal value. Substantial gender pay gaps continue to exist and there is generally little awareness on the issue. In Ukraine, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the employers' and workers' organizations were trained on the principle of Equal Remuneration for Work of Equal Value as enshrined in ILO Convention No. 100. In the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia the ILO also cooperates with all constituents on reducing the gender pay gap.