Parliamentary deputies adopted a cabinet-tailored amendment to the law on wages that in effect canceled wage regulation on May 11.
A July 1997 revision to the wage law had required that both state and private sector employers confine wage increases to levels consistent with increases in labour productivity. Employers who defied the law were fined.
The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family had been pushing for the cancellation of wage regulation since November 1998. The latest step removes the principal obstacle that had been preventing the Slovak Confederation of Trade Unions (KOZ) from rejoining the tripartite dialogue with the government and the Employers' Association.
