Transparency & Corruption, Social Dialogue, Hungary, Europe, Croatia, Armenia

The Eurofound research agency regularly carries out surveys of cross-sector and sector European trade union employer organisations to confirm their representativeness for the European social dialogue. Its latest report on the cross-sector level provides an overview of the ETUC in the European Union where it has 74 affiliated organisations in all EU27 countries, of which 62 are recognised as representative at national level. The 74 ETUC members represent some 37 million trade union members, that is, approximately 22% of all employees in the EU27 and about 80% of all trade union members. The

EPSU and HOSPEEM, the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association, have negotiated a new Framework of Actions on Recruitment and Retention. It includes aspects relating to COVID-19, work-life balance, digitalisation and health and safety. It also stresses social partners’ commitment to strengthen the attractiveness of the sector and to support a rights-based approach to recruiting migrant workers. The framework refers to existing initiatives for retention, e.g., an active ageing policy and EPSU and HOSPEEM emphasise that social partners must be involved in workforce planning

The European Commission’s annual review of Employment and Social Developments in Europe outlines some of the key effects of the pandemic on jobs, employment conditions and social dialogue. It identified uneven regional impacts with the more resilient regions sharing characteristics such as high regional productivity, high level of skilled population levels, big investment in research and development, quality local public institutions and solid digital infrastructure. The impact on national social dialogue and collective bargaining varied with countries with strong social dialogue institutions

The Eurofound research agency has published a review on industrial relations developments across Europe in the period 2015-2019. It notes concerns in some sectors that social partner requests for implementation of their agreements through European legislation have been rejected, and that better links between EU and national levels are needed. It also argues that investing in social dialogue in ‘good times’ helps to ensure that it can be depended on in times of crisis. A review of first policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic shows that social partner involvement was generally more robust in

The ETUC has published a first COVID-19 Watch briefing on social dialogue across Europe. Covering 20 countries, the briefing indicates that in most countries trade unions have been involved in various degrees in consultation and negotiation over emergency measures. This includes Spain and Italy, two of the countries worst hit by the pandemic. In France, the situation is more mixed with some limitation on trade union involvement in discussing key measures. More worrying have been the developments in Croatia, Hungary and Poland. While the Croatian withdrew plans to limit trade union and

EPSU has sent letters to the prime minister and leaders of political groups in parliament protesting at legislation that will remove public service status from over 20000 workers in libraries, museums, archives, culture centres, theatres and orchestras. This is a group of workers that is mainly low paid and whose pay has been frozen for over 10 years. The additional employment protection of public service status is one of their few main benefits. The government is using its emergency to push through the change at breakneck speed without the usual parliamentary process or consultation with

A working paper from the European Trade Union Institute, written by former European Commission official Jean-Paul Tricart, puts the spotlight on the way that the current Commission has followed its predecessor in moving away from a 20-year approach in support of social dialogue. While launching a process aimed ostensibly at the strengthening the social dialogue, the report argues that the current Commission has chosen "at will those outcomes of social dialogue that it would promote and those that it would not, and even those that it would go all out to discourage, lampoon or oppose." This

On 17 December the European trade unions and employers in central government administrations signed guidelines on tackling violence and harassment. This extends coverage to 8.9 million public employees and civil servants in addition to the millions of workers who are already covered by the guidelines adopted in 2010 in local and regional government, hospitals, education, commerce, and private security. While not legally binding, the guidelines provide basic yet fundamental guidance on how to put in place a policy and a procedure to prevent and deal with harassment and violent acts, in close