Forty delegates from nine countries met in London on 3-4 March in the first of three regional EPSU meetings to discuss social dialogue and collective bargaining. The initiative is part of a European Commission funded project set up to provide affiliates a new way of debating the issues, to get greater participation in debates and consider some more strategic issues in the run up to the EPSU Congress in 2009. The participants had a chance to exchange ideas and experiences on how to make the European social dialogue more effective. One key proposal was to allow more time in EPSU meetings, including the standing committees, to discuss how social dialogue agreements are implemented at national level. Part of the discussion on collective bargaining focused on the key debates at this year's collective bargaining conference. Participants agreed that a session on the implications of the Viking and Laval European Court cases would be invaluable and it was suggested that a number of simultaneous workshops could be organised to give participants more choice in the issues that they could discuss at conference. The next regional meeting will take place in Berlin on 13-14 May and participants have been invited from Germany, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland.
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First regional meeting on social dialogue and collective bargaining
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First regional collective bargaining meeting
Over 30 participants are due to meet in London on 3-4 March in a new initiative to discuss social dialogue and collective bargaining issues among smaller groups of EPSU affiliates. There will be three meetings in 2008 funded from the European Commission's social dialogue budget and the first will bring together affiliates from UK, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Affiliates from Norway and Iceland have also been invited. The meeting will discuss current challenges to effective sectoral social dialogue and look at how to improve co-ordination over key collective
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