MORE NEWS
“To improve European economy and mobilise investments, in particular private investments, as well as address current challenges, a comprehensive involvement of social partners in policy development and implementation is important. But full involvement also means taking on responsibility not only for the represented sector or a community, but also for the development of society and the economy as a whole,” stated Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma.
The European Commission Vice-President for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrovskis stressed that the topics of the forum — economic growth and job creation both in Latvia and throughout the European Union – is in line with the agenda of the European Commission during this period. "At the end of last year, the Commission defined three priorities for policy planning – promotion of investments, implementation of structural reforms and maintenance of fiscal responsibility. For achieving any of these goals, the role and support of social partners is crucial. I appreciate the willingness and openness of the Employers' Confederation of Latvia (LDDK) and the Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia (LBAS) to take action for common goals, therefore today I would like to encourage the Latvian partners to share their unique experience and constructive approach with their colleagues from across Europe,” said Valdis Dombrovskis.
During the social partners’ forum, the participants discussed recommendations for decision-makers at EU, national, regional, sectoral and local level to promote wider use of social dialogue mechanism at all levels, including sectoral and enterprise level. The recommendations will be submitted to the European Commission, the Latvian Presidency of the Council of European Union, the Latvian Minister for Welfare, Uldis Augulis, who expressed commitment to present them at the informal meeting of the Ministers for Employment and Social Policy on 20-22 April 2015 in Riga.
"The entrepreneurs cannot afford to think only half a year or a year ahead. The minimum is three years. And we wish to see this also in politicians’ work – to think at least several years ahead. Not only to think, but also to act and to set specific, measurable goals to achieve in short-, medium- and long-term. Politicians are afraid of such goal-setting, but there is no other way to achieve something! LDDK experience shows that defining targets and precise tasks to achieve them is the only effective model and we are willing to share our experience and provide support for its implementation at all levels," stressed the President of LDDK, Vitālijs Gavrilovs, emphasising the employers’ interest in successful implementation of social dialogue.
In turn, the President of LBAS, Pēteris Krīgers, added: "A very good model of social dialogue has been created in Latvia. Regardless, both the government, and social partners need think collectively about how to improve the current situation, how to introduce new traditions and methods of social dialogue so that the end result would be positive. This must be done not only in Latvia, but also in the most Member States of the European Union."
Members of the forum highlighted the main differences among social partners that hold back the approval of the social partners work agenda at EU level. A discussion on the promotion of the autonomous social dialogue between employers and employees is among these differences, as opposed to the greater involvement of public administration in social dialogue. Employers support greater autonomy enabling partners to agree themselves on critical issues and solutions, whereas trade unions want more formal control over decisions made within social dialogue and their implementation.
Social partners also emphasised that in Europe and at national level in many countries the weakest segment of social dialogue is sectoral social dialogue that includes concluding sectoral general agreements on common rules for working environment, payment and other areas.
