SEMINAR ON COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND REPRESENTATION OF TEMPORARY WORKERS IN EUROPE

1/27/2016

Caption 1. The President of CCM, PhD Zivko Mitrevski on the opening of the seminar

Within the framework of the project "Collective bargaining and representation of temporary workers in Europe, Development and reinforcement of industrial relations systems in response to changes in the European labor market", the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia on 27.01.2016, held a seminar on which the results of a survey conducted in 28 EU countries plus additional 5 countries (Macedonia Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany) were presented.

The seminar was opened by the President of the Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia (CCM), PhD Zhivko Mitrevski, who in his speech stressed the importance of the conducted research and the preparation of a complete analysis and study dedicated to this subject.

This seminar, despite the branch unions that were part of the focus group, was attended by representatives from the Center for Economic and Social Studies, Italy (CESOS) Mrs. Vilma Rinolfi, a project coordinator and Ms. Flavia Pese, project manager and senior researcher in the project.

Caption 2. Participants of the seminar

The Project Coordinator, Mrs. Vilma Rinolfi from CESOS briefly presented the project, gave an overview of the objectives and activities of the project and emphasized the current stage of the project.

Caption 3. The Project Coordinator, Mrs. Vilma Rinolfi- CESOS

After her speech, M.Sc. Lidija Naskovska, Adviser to the President on projects and EU integration and a senior researcher in this project, gave an overview of the problems and guidelines outlined by the focus group in Macedonia which held its meeting on 24 June 2015, which highlighted three main problems and possible solutions thereof facing temporary workers:

1. Problems arising from the period of engagement
2. Lack of a special collective agreement for temporary workers
3. Other problems of temporary workers, users of certain social benefits, such as:

• Social welfare and
• Social Security.

Caption 4. M.Sc. Lidija Naskovska, senior researcher in the project

Among other things, she stated that: "The general reasons why Macedonian temporary workers do not agree to have a temporary work are the following:

• The possibility of losing the status of socially endangered person
• Loss of social welfare and
• the complex procedure for regaining the status of socially endangered person

Based on this analysis and the recommendations of the focus group a report on "Collective bargaining and representation of temporary workers in Europe, Development and reinforcement of industrial relations systems in response to changes in the European labor market", was prepared that was presented by the economic expert, Ljubica Dekovska on this seminar.

Caption 5.The Economic expert, Ljubica Dekovska presenting the Report

The economic expert in her presentation highlighted the results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of data on temporary employment in the EU 28 plus 5 additional countries involved in the project Macedonia, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany, which were obtained from the database of Eurostat and from the conducted field research, as well as through direct communications and data exchange with representatives of trade unions and representatives of employers' organizations in these countries.

The presentation comprised the ways of representation of the temporary employees and opportunities for collective bargaining in order to improve their employment rights.

At the end the economic expert presented the conclusions and recommendations that shall stimulate discussion on finding practical solutions that can contribute to solving the problems of the temporary employees.