News

At a press conference on 12 June 2017, Jozef Kollar, president of the Slovak trade union conferederation KOZ and Svetozar Michalek, President of the Finance sector union OZPPaP, voiced their disagreement with the unilateral termination of collective bargaining. The Slovak Banking Association (SBA) had announced earlier this year that they are no longer willing to engage in collective bargaining in the banking sector at national level.

At the press conference, UNI Finance and ITC-ILO supported the Slovak affiliates, as it coincided with a joint workshop held in Bratislava on the “Strengthening social dialogue in the finance sector”.

Claudia Saller, Policy Officer at UNI Europa Finance, said it was almost a “cynical coincidence” that the thirty workshop participants coming from all over Europe discussing on “Strengthening social dialogue” found themselves in a country where social dialogue was suddenly severely challenged. She said that for UNI, collective agreements at national and sector level are an important tool to protect all the workers in the sector, providing for equality and avoiding a “race to the bottom” of working conditions.

Angelo Di Cristo, Head of UNI Finance, urged the Slovak Banking Association to come back to the negotiation table. He recalled that the Slovak Banking Association was a member of the European Banking Federation (EBF) who had confirmed their commitment to collective bargaining at multiple instances as well as in written declarations. Decentralisation of collective bargaining is a negative trend that is ultimately detrimental to society at large.

Evelin Toth of ITC-ILO said that the ILO was very concerned to learn about this development and hoped that the social dialogue could be resumed.

UNI Europa Finance will continue the dialogue with the European Banking Federation and support the Slovak trade unions to re-establish social dialogue.

UPDATE:

The Slovak Banking Association and the Slovak trade unions will meet on 20 June.

Find here the link to an extract of the press conference.