Prime Minister Janez Janša met today with presidents of the representative trade unions. Together they assessed the situation relating to social dialogue in Slovenia, the progress made in consultations on the social agreement for the following period and the state of negotiations concerning the Employment Act.

 

Photo by: Office of the Prime Minister

 

According to the Prime Minister's statement after the meeting, the amendment of the Employment Act represents part of the measures for the modernisation of Slovenia, its economy and the society at large. "The amendment is part of the package of reform measures to which the Government has committed itself and is implementing, part of it being included in the recently adopted tax legislation package," said the Prime Minister, adding that the concentration of reform efforts is now passing over to this field.

 

According to the Prime Minister, today's meeting took place at just the right time. He also expressed his satisfaction with the confirmation of consent on the necessity for certain changes and on the agreement that the model of new labour legislation needs to be built by both sides. In his opinion, this means that along with higher flexibility of the labour market greater security also needs to be provided. "There is consent in respect of this issue," said the Prime Minister.

 

"Regarding negotiations on the social agreement for the next period, we have established that the first three chapters have more or less been closed and that the work may continue. The negotiators are making substantial co-ordinating efforts, and we expect that the co-ordination will be completed early next year. Both sides highlighted remarks regarding the very nature and gravity of the negotiations, as well as certain misunderstandings that arose during these negotiations. In this context it needs to be said that there is no country in which negotiations on such issues are simple. If the interests of the parties concerned were identical, there would be no need for negotiations. What is important is that the culture of dialogue is preserved and that in the end an acceptable compromise is reached," said the Prime Minister.

 

The Prime Minister and the presidents of the representative trade unions have also agreed to make another round of efforts to try to bring the positions regarding the Employment Act as close as possible. In areas in which this is impossible, a list of open issues will be drawn up that will be discussed by the Prime Minister, the trade unions and the employers in a joint meeting. It will only afterwards be possible for the Government to make a decision as to when and in what scope to submit the proposal of a new employment act for discussion in the National Assembly.