The Trajectory of Development of Social Partnership

Profound changes in the social and labor sphere are followed by both emergence of the new opportunities associated with the development of flexible forms of employment, expansion of opportunities for employment, humanization and digitization of work, and the emergence of new threats: the occurrence of such phenomena as employment preсarization, growth of the informal components in the labor relations, distribution of practice of bringing the labor relations to the civil legal area, and so on. As a result, controversies between the main participants of the social and labor relations grow. An effective and worldwide recognized mechanism of resolving them is the social partnership which has the deep historical roots going back to outstanding thinkers of antiquity. During later historical periods the ideas of social partnership gained development in the works of domestic and foreign scientists, public and statesmen. In the Russian Federation social partnership has the specific trajectory of development which has developed under the influence of both historical and modern factors. The carried-out analysis allowed to reveal the following problems of formation and development of the social partnership system in the Russian Federation: sociocultural features, weakness of the trade-union movement, development of non-standard forms of employment, differentiation of the income of the population, low interest of the government. The designated problems which are slowing down the process of transition of the social and labor relations to partner type are manifested both on federal, and on regional levels. To research the extent of development of collective contract regulation and identification of the problems which take place in the system of social partnership at the local level sociological survey of workers of a number of the Russian organizations was performed. As a result, it was found that collective contract regulation of the social and labor relations in the Russian Federation at the local level demands improvement. The main problems of system of social partnership at the local level are: weak knowledge of trade-union members concerning the activity of those organizations, especially at the sectoral, regional, and territorial levels; unwillingness to resolve the issues of social and labor regulation at the organizational level without governmental support and lack of the developed practice of conducting collective negotiations; passivity and weak motivation of trade-union members in protection of their labor rights; weak feasibility of practical implementation of the collective agreement provisions. The results of the theoretical and empirical researches allow to predict the trajectory of further development of social partnership consisting in strengthening of the social component due to the extension of the database concerning the problems of the social partners.

Loonvorming in tijden van crisis

Wage formation in times of crisis Wage formation in times of crisis The article studies how wage formation in the Netherlands developed since the economic crisis of the end of 2008. Employers’ organisations and trade unions responded to the crisis with a historic novelty. They broke up the national framework agreement for 2009 and negotiated a new framework better adapted to the new conditions. This so-called Spring Agreement 2009 encouraged negotiators for new collective contracts to moderate wage growth. Half a year later the average wage increase had indeed declined to 1%. Inter-sectoral differences in economic development hardly played a role in the wage negotiations, but the expiration date of the collective contract was important. Collective contracts agreed upon before the Spring Agreement show higher wage increases than collective contracts established after the Spring Agreement. Numbers confirm that social partners did not break up collective contracts (unless a bankruptcy is near), but followed the centrally agreed framework in negotiations for a new collective contract. Consequently, a collective wage freeze was agreed upon for more than two million employees in about 30 percent of the collective agreements. In exchange, these employees received extra holidays, a higher personal benefit budget and/or an incidental benefit. In some collective agreements parties did agree a conditional collective wage increase, dependent on business results. All in all, in the wage formation process Dutch corporatism reacted quickly and adequately to the new conditions.

Company-Level Pacts for Employment

SummaryCompany-level pacts for employment are agreements between management and the company's work force that are characterized by concessions from both bargaining partners. Employees agree to company-specific deviations from a collective contract that include negative components like reduced wages or prolonged working time in exchange for employment guarantees or investment programs. These pacts are negotiated to avoid or mitigate a decline of employment or to improve the long-term competitiveness of the firm. Based on the IAB Establishment Panel of the years 2004 to 2007 the employment consequences of these pacts are analyzed. It can be shown that company-level pacts tend to correlate negatively with employment growth. This finding basically holds if the endogeneity of pacts is taken into account.

Collective contract in economy, public services and state administration in the conditions of transition

In this paper the author determines the contents of collective contract, particular in the direction to social property, public services and state administration. State administration bodies are dominated by autocratic rules in state management, and all the relations inside are based on the command - obedience process. The author concludes that in the state administration changes are needed, which would ensure maintenance of independence and responsibility of the employers in their work.