The rise of the dual labour market: fighting precarious employment in the new member states through industrial relations (PRECARIR) Country report: Slovakia (original) (raw)
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The research reports, 2016
PROJECT GOALS This project investigated the role of industrial relations in addressing precarious work. It focused on the initiatives and responses that trade unions and employers’ associations developed to deal with precarious work in Croatia, the Czech Republic (hereafter Czechia), Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia since 2008. In each country, the study analysed developments in five sectors, namely public healthcare, the metal industry, construction, retail and temporary agency work (TAW). The project used a qualitative approach to examine the dimensions of precarious employment, including low pay, irregular working hours, low job security and limited representation of workers’ rights. DUAL LABOUR MARKETS Apart from an increase in the share of non-standard work contracts since 2008, findings suggest that all forms of employment were exposed to more precarious conditions following various degrees of labour market deregulation across the 10 countries. In a context of weak law enforcement and decreasing unions’ role and influence, employers were able to use (and sometimes abuse) their enlarged prerogatives to increase the workload, the use of irregular working time and sometimes, to reduce the income of workers on all types of contracts. Still, workers in the informal market and dependent self-employed have the most precarious working conditions across the countries. These vulnerable groups are most prevalent in the construction and the retail sectors, often doing work for small domestic firms. In contrast, large (often multinational) firms, particularly in the construction and metal sectors use more frequently outsourcing to reduce labour costs. The share of agency workers, fixed-term and part-time employees has risen across the countries but less than expected in some countries (e.g. Croatia and Romania) due to labour shortages associated with massive emigration and the fact that employers have sufficient leverage to demand employees on full-time open ended contracts to work irregular hours contingent on companies’ needs. RESPONSES OF SOCIAL PARTNERS TO PRECARIOUS EMPLOYMENT Social partners focused primarily on legal initiatives to regulate precarious work at the national level, while additional initiatives, such as collective bargaining were used at lower levels. Employers’ initiatives generally sought to deregulate the labour market and they have been quite successful, in most countries. Unions’ initiatives to improve precarious employment conditions through legislation often failed, which sometimes resulted in innovative or ‘recombined’ old and new strategies to fight against precarious work. In some countries, unions managed to organise the most vulnerable workers, such as self-employed and outsourced employees. Nevertheless, unions’ strategies varied across countries from aiming to transform precarious work arrangements into standard employment in Slovenia to supporting the economic rationale of precarious work forms in Latvia. POLICY IMPLICATIONS Periods of crisis throw new light on the role of the social partners. The labour market deregulation has shifted the initiative in industrial relations from unions and employers’ associations to individual employers by widening their prerogatives to set employment conditions, which in turn, increased the dualization of the labour markets. Furthermore, there is evidence of precarious work practices being exported by multinationals across their subsidiaries, prompting convergence of management practices. Trade unions need to be aware of the international dimension of precarious work, as they could also use their international networks, including their positions in European Works Councils, to fight against spreading precarious work by multinationals and a ‘race to the bottom’ in labour standards. Nevertheless, social partners cannot fight against precarious work, unless governments guarantee, at least, the fundamental union rights and ensure the effective implementation of labour laws