by Pekka Aro and Paula Repo (jointly with ACTRAV), 1996
Available in [pdf file] 5,7 Mbyte
This book is the result of co-operation and continuous dialogue between the International Labour Office and trade unions in the Central and Eastern European countries, in the framework of the Active Partnership Policy. It has emerged from the practical needs expressed by unionists. The methodology for collecting, analysing and presenting information has been agreed with experts of the unions concerned. Most of the necessary work has been carried out by trade unions, co-operating with ILO. The conclusions will be drawn by unions, and will hopefully contribute to the improvement of labour relations, working conditions and the development of democratic market economies in Central and Eastern Europe. Markets are always based on agreements and contracts, where independent representatives share commitments and benefits for their constituents. This book is intended to support that. The survey included over 3,000 trade union representatives, who have concluded collective agreements in the five selected countries. It is the most extensive collection of information of this kind. The purpose has been to support the unions in their negotiating work, and therefore the approach focuses on the subjective experiences of the negotiators. The survey and its results have caused us to reflect on some wider issues.
Local bargaining - at the level of an enterprise or establishment - is a global trend. Bargaining on certain issues has shifted to the level of a workplace also in many of those Western European countries where conditions of labour used to be controlled and co-ordinated by national central or industry level agreements. But the introduction of local bargaining in the labour markets of Central and Eastern European countries takes place against a different background and in different economic and social circumstances than in Western Europe. Collective agreement is only one of the instruments that arc used in market economics for monitoring, co-ordinating and controlling the micro- and macro-economic developments. Collective bargaining needs the support of other elements of economic and social policy. Some of these elements cannot be introduced at the local level.
Issues included in collective agreements reflect not only the state. of labour-market policy and labour legislation, but also the state of social policy and legislation. When the coverage of social protection has decreased in many Western European countries, collective agreements have been extended to this area. Provisions on company pension and health insurance schemes have been introduced to local agreements. In Central and Eastern Europe, companies used to provide their employees with an extensive social protection. That framework has been broken, and new public structures for social protection are difficult to introduce. More thought needs to be devoted to the role of collective bargaining together with democratic, tripartite governance of social protection schemes.
The context of local negotiations within the bargaining unit is different in Central and Eastern Europe from that in Western Europe. Local bargaining relies on the information, consultation and co-determination structures developed within the bargaining unit. If these structures have not evolved, not just in legislation, but also in practice, substance of the bargaining is lost. Results of this survey indicate that local collective bargaining needs a much stronger support from various ways of participation of trade unions in the decisions concerning the bargaining unit's future.
This survey forms a part of a project funded by the Government of the Netherlands, with the support of the Dutch trade union confederations FNV and CNV ILO is most grateful to them, also for the active participation in the design and execution of the survey and the whole project. We wish to extend our sincere thanks to Pekka Aro, Senior Specialist on Workers' Activities, CEET, who designed and co-ordinated the overall project and has been in charge of this publication.
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