Trade unions and employers discuss impact of global financial crisis

The representatives of the metalworkers trade union KOVO and their partners from prominent Slovak industrial companies met on November 19 in Piešťany (Trnava region) to discuss the global financial crisis. The trade unionists were mainly interested in how employers are going to tackle the impact of the crisis in such a way as to avoid radical lay-offs and/or a significant drop in wages.

Given the current economic development in Slovakia, we can expect further outfall from the financial crisis, KOVO chairman Emil Machyňa told the TASR newswire. The social partners thus agreed on the procedure regarding collective negotiation and closing master agreements based on principles that will stabilise the employment rate in the engineering sector.

The trade unions are prepared to react flexibly to the crisis situation. Preliminarily, they have agreed on minimal increases in wages. The new plan calls for wage increases to be pegged to the level of inflation for companies that can document the impact of financial crisis on their business. When justified, workers will agree to decreased payment for overtime. On the other hand, in terms of job security, workers will want to see this introduced, especially for employees with permanent jobs. All measures taken by employers should be discussed in advance with the trade union's representatives. TASR

Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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