New challenges for public sector social dialogue

1. New challenges for public sector social dialogue The Case of Slovakia Marta Kahancová and MáriaSedláková 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

2. Outline • General overview of industrial relations (health and education) • Recent developments • Service user involvement vs. traditional representation via social partners • Conceptual/practical issues

3. Industrial relations • 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

4. Healthcare • 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)

5. 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)

6. Involvement of service users and other actors • 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

7. Questions • 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

8. Conceptual/practical issues • 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?

9. Thank you for your attention! marta.kahancova@celsi.sk