The Labour Ministry submitted for interdepartmental review a draft to extend the validity of higher collective agreements to employers who had not signed them.
These are collective agreements for 2008 to 2009, which were concluded by the metalworkers trade union organisation OZ KOVO with the Association of Electrical Engineering Industry and the Association of Mechanical Engineering Industry. The collective agreement with the Association of Electrical Engineering Industry should also apply to the companies BHS Drives and Pumps, Michalovce; Elektrokarbon, Topoľčany; SEZ, Dolný Kubín; and ZVZ-Previs, Banská Bystrica.
The collective agreement between OZ KOVO and the Association of Mechanical Engineering Industry should also apply to an additional 31 companies, including INA Skalica; Matador Automotive Vráble; Slovenské Lodenice Komárno; and Valeo Slovakia.
OZ KOVO thus took advantage of the revised law on collective bargaining, which employers dislike. The National Employers' Association (RÚZ) Secretary Martin Hosták thinks that higher collective agreements that apply to subjects that had not signed them or do not agree with them, are at odds with the freedom-of-contract principle and, thus, with the Slovak Constitution and even the European Convention on Human Rights.
RÚZ filed a motion on this matter at the Constitutional Court and is awaiting its verdict. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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