Past and present of the social dialogue

Social dialogue in the form in which we know it today – the result of the collective agreement and settlement, the practice began after the fall of communism. In the Slovak Republic, the legislation in the area of ​​social dialogue relatively stable and comparable legislation in many developed European countries. The most turbulent social dialogue usually leads us to the central level. In contrast, the level of individual firms or sectors to reach agreement less complicated way. Strike action is Slovakia compared to Western European countries, uncommon, even rare phenomenon. It is also milder and usually does not result in the restriction or interruption of production activities. Strikes are simply no tradition even surveys show that more and fewer people are willing to engage in strikes.

In view of the above comes to the fore the question of the adoption of the strike. This would regulate the conditions and procedure statements to strike, even out of a dispute concerning a collective agreement. Such a move would, however, two sides – on the one hand, the unions could be considered an attempt to limit strike action, on the other hand, however, determine more precisely the conditions that would allow a better estimate (than) the legality of the strike. That it is often the reason why workers strike unwilling or unable to participate. Participate in the illegal strike by them would be fatal, with a statement of legal strike action would, in turn, attracted more participants.

One of the most serious problems the strike rights legislation in the Slovak Republic is the issue of the beneficiaries of the right to strike. In accordance with the relevant provisions of the collective bargaining agreement may be subject to the right to strike only the relevant trade union (or higher trade union body for the case of higher-level collective agreement). The right to strike is therefore not have any others, even though the employees they represent. The Labour Code is in addition to the employee representatives and trade union body works council or works trustee. It is questionable why the authorities do not have the legal personality of the strike law, and therefore why not declare a coordinated strike, especially when considering the arguments, the works council representative or trustee, unlike unions, all employees, and thus gain effective right to strike and employees who either are not unionized, or work with an employer, which is not active in any trade union. Moreover, the employee representatives law for inactivity fields conclude with the employer agreements governing working conditions, including pay and conditions of employment to the extent that they are able to negotiate with unions through collective agreement. The works council and works trustee then also have the right to control the fulfillment of such agreements, but unlike unions authorities have legal personality in the strike law, and thus can not effectively enforce the effectiveness of the agreements concluded by them.

• INEKO