New challenges for
public sector social dialogue
The Case of Slovakia
Marta Kahancová and Mária Sedláková
Central European Labour Studies Institute
Bratislava, Slovakia
With financial support
from the European Union
VP/2013/0362
KCL Kick-off meeting, London, Feb 6, 2014
Outline

General overview of industrial relations (health and education)

Recent developments
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Service user involvement vs. traditional representation via social
partners

Conceptual/practical issues
Industrial relations

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Coordinated system of social dialogue with predominance of
sectoral or multi-employer bargaining; irregular pattern setting
and limited involvement of central organizations
(the missing link)
National level: formally strong tripartism since 1991, but since
2000 no bargaining at this level, non-binding agreements,
advisory character – contested position of tripartism

Declining union and employer densities, bargaining coverage

Sector-level bargaining complementary to establishment
level bargaining – establishment-level bargaining strengthened
and enforceability of sectoral agreements weakened, lack of
direct coordination
Healthcare

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Healthcare (hospitals) formally not part of public service since
2005, independent social dialogue following the Labour Code
Hospitals: two employers’ associations, three trade unions, two
multi-employer collective agreements to supplement
establishment-level collective bargaining
Sectoral practice/fora: multi-employer social dialogue, sectoral
tripartism, sectoral bipartism, healthcare actors also involved in
the general public service social dialogue and in national
tripartism
Recent developments: hospital corporatization and its reversal,
partly privatization, austerity fuelled wage disputes, wage
increases for doctors and nurses, constitutional court case, new
challenges for social dialogue (economic consolidation of
corporatized hospitals, growing gap in employment conditions)
Education

Education part of public sector bargaining, but also independent
sectoral social dialogue forum (four-partism: trade union,
employers, regional governments, Ministry of Education)

Fragmentation on the trade union side - Trade Union of Workers
in Education and Science of Slovakia and several independent
unions

Recent developments: gradual education reform (e.g., to
accreditation of university study programmes), 2012 demand on
wage increases for teachers fuelled broader debates on the
quality of education, strikes in 2013, long negotiations, finally an
agreement on 5% wage increase (but union fragmentation and
several alternative industrial actions)
Involvement of service users
and other actors


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Healhcare: Chamber of Medical Doctors, Chamber of Nurses and
Midwives, Healthcare Surveillance Authority – active involvement
in policy making and influence on social dialogue
Education: Various councils (e.g., Student Council for Higher
Education, Student Council of the High Schools of the Slovak
Republic, Education Council of the Slovak Republic, The Slovak
Rectors’ Conference
Level of involvement:
- national level – national ‘multipartism’, working groups within
the Economic and Social Committee, most obvious intersection
of the ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ channels of influence
- sector and establishment level– involvement type, level,
character, process, interaction with social partners to be
researched
Questions

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Pressure of service user involvement – which actors involved in
the social dialogue system?
New forms of direct user involvement and implications for traditional
channels – how are these actors involved?
- obvious at national level and sector-specific issues within national
policy domains, the exact channels of interaction/influence of new
actors vs. traditional social partners subject to research
Changing scope of social dialogue
- broadening of the agenda (quality of education, hospital
corporatization, action regarding wage increases beyond
traditional IR structures
Consequences for the establishment level
- decentralized structure of schools and hospitals, subject to
research
Conceptual/practical issues




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Conceptualizing service users –what level of
aggregation/representation?
Role of employees – object of social dialogue regulation vs.
service providers
Operationalization of interests of service users and social
partners and their compatibility – interests in general vs.
interests in response to a particular events or external shocks
(e.g., hospital corporatization, coordinated industrial action of
nurses, coordinated wage demands in education, etc.)
Practical issues: decentralized structure of hospitals and
schools – how to study the establishment level involvement?
Level at which the interests of social partners meet the interests
of service users – which intersections? What kind of
actions/interaction between service users and social
partners? Shared perceptions vs. joint statements/actions?
Thank you for your attention!
marta.kahancova@celsi.sk