News

One of the objectives of this project is improve the participation in the TAW social dialogue at the national and EU level.



The first sub-regional seminar took place in Athens on June 9-11. Employers representing the national federations and the main private employment agencies (e.g. Manpower) from three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - and Greece discussed the industry issues, participation in the sectoral policy development as well as the social dialogue.



UNI TAW Policy Officer Giedre Lelyte took part in the session on opportunities for improving social dialogue and building partnerships with employers’ organisations. She presented UNI Global Union and its work representing employees in the sector. She talked about the union principles on agency work, challenges faced by the workers as well as a long lasting co-operation with the employers' organisation, namely the European social dialogue and the Memorandum of Understanding signed by UNI and Ciett. She answered participants' questions on equal treatment of agency workers, collective bargaining agreements and vocational training. G. Lelyte also promised to assist the Baltic employers to establish contacts with UNI's affiliates in the region.



The seminar was also attended by Panos Kyriakoulias, the Organisational Secretary of OIYE. He described the challenges Greek unions were facing and invited employers to start discussions on co-operation in the TAW sector. It was the first meeting of Greek unions and private employment agencies representatives and it was agreed to meet in a few weeks to exchange information and start developing partnership.



The participation of UNI and its Greek affiliate in the seminar was a good opportunity to identify areas for common understanding and further work between the agency work sector social partners.



The second meeting in the framework of the project will take place in Istanbul in July.