Car Producers should not be Affect Directly by OZ KOVO Activities

Car assembly plants Volkswagen Slovakia, PSA Peugeot Citroen Slovakia and Kia Motors Slovakia will be not be directly affected either by the strike alert, which the metalworkers trade union organization OZ KOVO announced on Tuesday, or by potential industrial action to exercise pressure on employers. As spokespersons of VW Slovakia, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Kia Motors confirmed to SITA news agency, there are collective agreements in effect signed between the car makers and their employees. However, the head of OZ KOVO Council Emil Machyna informed that activities of the unions do influence the car assembly plants. "The talks are held at two levels; at the level of the industrial sector and at the level of individual factories," said Mr. Machyna. He pointed out that existence of collective agreements between companies and their employees should not prevent the employees to support OZ KOVO activities. "A petition will be launched also in car factories, we will talk to them and we hope that they will join us," said Mr. Machyna. The car plants employ more than 14,000 workers in total.
The metalworkers trade union organization OZ KOVO declared strike alert on Tuesday. It explained the step by deadlocked wage bargaining with employers from the Slovak Engineering Industry Association (ZSP). Head of OZ KOVO Council Emil Machyna said they are launching petitions and if it fails to agree with employers, it will organize industrial action to exercise pressure on employers. Mr. Machyna did not want to elaborate on there form, but first ones could be held during February. Mr. Machyna, however, underscored that they want to solve the situation in a calm way, preferably in a discussion.
OZ KOVO complains that employers are unwilling to agree with the trade unionists. They offer employees an average wage increase of merely three percent, however, unions demand seven percent growth. Mr. Machyna pointed to the considerable growth of the Slovak economy and permanent increase in profits and labor productivity in Slovak engineering companies. He specified that profit of engineering companies oscillated at SKK 14 billion and in 3Q 2007 the labor productivity index achieved 127.5 percent. OZ KOVO argues that higher wages will not pose any risk to performance of individual companies. Mr. Machyna specified that Slovakia has the highest labor productivity per capita within the Visegrad Group and the lowest labor costs at the same time. The companies in Slovakia have high employee costs but motivate them insufficiently.