Minister of State for Employment Policy Sándor Czomba emphasized at a two-day conference entitled Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue in Europe that the key objective of the Government is to maintain social dialogue – as underpinned by new regulations – as this enables society to recover from the crisis more easily.

The economic crisis has created formerly unheard-of challenges, industrial relations have undergone various changes, decentralization has become typical and the role of Governments concerning labour issues has diminished, he said.

He also said that similarly to other countries in the region, in Hungary employees are not highly organized, but by the end of 2012 a new development can be observed: the share of collective contracts in the public sector has shrunk to below that of the private sector.

Speaking about the Government’s goals, he said that the inclusion of social partners and establishing a broad-based consultation mechanism are essential. Social partners have been engaged and relevant EU guidelines have been taken into consideration for formulating regulations. It is too early to assess in detail the effects of the new regulations; responses and experiences are still being gathered in order to fine-tune provisions, he said. New rounds of collective bargaining may now begin on the basis of new regulations.

President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso sent a video message, while European Commissioner for Industrial Policy László Andor spoke at the event.

The objective of the two-day conference is to present the key results of the 2012 Industrial Relations in Europe report, analyse the similarities and differences between industrial relations in Central and Eastern European member states, and to identify the main challenges and policies to be implemented on both a national and European level.

(Ministry for National Economy)