Brussels, 27/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - The conference organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the European Commission on 14-15 April in Brussels on “Diversity and Convergence in new Member States” looked at developments in working and employment conditions in these countries and examined whether working and employment conditions in the enlarged Europe were moving to harmonisation, convergence or more towards diversification. It also looked at company practices.
At the end of the conference François Eyraud, director of the ILO's “Working and Employment Conditions” programme said that the ability to respond to change is very high in new Member States where they had shown much innovation and initiative in the realm of working conditions. He pointed out that at the same time, adapting to difficult circumstances had clearly led to a certain excess and abuses. His ideas are published in the book (launched at the “Working and Employment Conditions in New EU Member States: Convergence or Diversity?” It is published by Daniel Vaughan-Whitehead, and ILO advisor.
The study attempts for the first time ever to provide a picture of working and employment conditions and how social dialogue is conducted in six of the countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Malta and Cyprus. There is also information about Hungary. The author recognises that companies are finding it difficult to implement the commitment new Member States took in the area of work legislation. He also explained that the companies studied in the six countries present problems in the area of pace of work carried out, working hours and safety at work. Mr Vaughan-Whitehead explains in a press statement that in a context dominated by long term unemployment, the priority for workers is to keep their work whatever the conditions and although the balance of forces is in favour of the employers. Vaughan-Whitehead explains how this has implications for family life and demography: particularly women having their first child later. He cited the example of Poland where some women had pushed back the birth of their first child by ten years out of fear of losing their jobs.
The study also shows that in 2003, almost all new Member States (with the exception of Lithuania and to a lesser extent Slovakia) has working hours that were higher than the EU average (41.4 hours a week). The study illustrated that Latvia has a working week that was on average more than 2 hours the EU average, closely followed by Poland and the Czech Republic and that in a number of cases, overtime is not paid. One source of flexibility, the use of temporary work and self-employment has become widespread, whereas this kind of work did not exist before and the practice of multiple contracts (namely, a succession of contracts for a worker occupying the same job). The study reveals that social dialogue had helped to improve the situation but that a limited number of collective agreements and the sharp fall in unionised workers meant that this success was limited. (ISBN 92-2-117139-6). (http://www.ilo.org )