A group of forty-five deputies of opposition parties the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU-DS), the Hungarian Coalition Party (SMK) and the Christian-Democratic Movement (KDH) filed a motion at the Constitutional Court asking the court to examine whether extending the legal power of collective agreements to employers without their approval is in line with the Slovak constitution.
This possibility arose in the law on collective bargaining, which was indirectly amended through a tripartite law in February. The law, which took effect on April 1, charged the Labor Ministry with examining conditions for extending the legal power of higher level collective agreements. Legal representative of the deputies Radoslav Prochadzka thinks that in this way, the legal power of a state administrative body, such as the Labor Ministry, would be inappropriately strengthened at the expense of independent judiciary power.
Vice president of the National Employers' Association (RUZ) Jozef Spirko is most upset about the fact that the proposal to enhance the legal power of collective agreements was not at all discussed with employers prior to its inclusion into the law on collective bargaining. He thinks that the author of the proposal, Jana Valova, a deputy of SMER-Social Democracy, gained approval from the Labor Ministry. He considers the revision to be a breach of social dialogue in Slovakia, because the Labor Ministry ignored its social partners.
The Slovak Association of Employers' (AZZZ) main negotiator warns that the proposal is a significant breach of the right to private ownership and the right to do business.
StoryEditor