GENEVA (ILO News) - The 13 European Union accession states will gather in Valetta, Malta on 28 February for a high-level international Conference on social dialogue and labour law reform aimed at exploring new ways of meeting the economic and social challenges as they prepare to join an expanded EU.
The "High-Level Tripartite Conference on Social dialogue and Labour Law Reform in the EU Accession Countries" is being organized from 28 February to 1 March by the Geneva-based International Labour Office (ILO) and the Government of Malta.
The two-day conference will gather tripartite delegations representing governments, employers and workers from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.
The meeting will be opened by Mr. Lawrence Gonzi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Social Policy of Malta, Ms. Sally Paxton, Executive Director, Social Dialogue Sector of the ILO, and Mr. Eleftherios Giolas, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Greece, which is the current holder of the EU Presidency. Delegates will hear statements from the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
Ms. Paxton said the main purpose of the Conference will be to assess the "state of the art of social dialogue at the national level" in the 13 countries, and provide new impetus "to explore further the potential of social dialogue to contribute to meeting the on-going economic and social challenges facing the 13, in particular in the field of labour law reform".
"There have been far-reaching and unprecedented economic and institutional reforms, particularly in the former East Bloc countries, covering in a decade what many other countries required a century to do", Ms. Paxton said.
"While a great deal of labour market reform in EU candidate countries has already been accomplished through the enactment of statutory law, there is still substantial room for workplace reform that could be effectively addressed through social dialogue and collective bargaining at the enterprise, sectoral and national level", she added. "Our challenge here is to encourage the establishment of an enabling environment for developing credible social dialogue and industrial relations that will allow all candidate countries to benefit from and contribute to prosperity of an enlarged EU."
With the process of accession coming to an end soon for 10 of the 13 accession countries, the Conference offers a timely opportunity to look at the challenges facing EU accession countries in the areas of social dialogue and labour law reform.
According to the ILO, the overall economic and social situation in the candidate countries remains today far from satisfactory, but recent trends have been encouraging. Economic growth has on average reached 4.7 per cent over 1995-2000 (against 2.7 in the EU).
The ILO said labour productivity in industry has increased at an annual average rate of 5.9 per cent between 1995 and 2000 in 10 Central and Eastern European countries. Much of this remarkable performance can be explained by structural reforms giving priority to efficiency gains.
Unemployment remains high in six countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia, with an average rate over 10 per cent), against an average of 6.2 in seven of the candidate countries (Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey). The share of long term (12 months or more) unemployment reaches 48.3 per cent of total unemployment in 2000 in 10 Central and Eastern European countries, a share similar to that found in the EU-15.
According to the report, real wages have increased at a sustained pace of 3.9 per cent per year over 1995-2000 in 10 Central and Eastern European countries, but remain very low in comparison with EU levels. On average real wages in industry (approximately 3 dollars per hour in manufacturing) are less than 10 per cent of wages in Germany (at 32 dollars per hour) in 2000.
"Full integration into the European Union requires that the government and social actors in candidate countries take up the challenge of reviewing their social dialogue and industrial relations institutions and machinery and, where necessary, carry out the revisions needed so that these are as effective and credible as they are in existing EU member States", Ms. Paxton said.