BRATISLAVA, January 12, (WEBNOVINY) — President of the Trade Unions Confederation (KOZ) Miroslav Gazdik stated on Thursday that 460 days were enough for the government of Iveta Radicova to break up the model of a social state, razing it to the ground. “Already after 2010 parliamentary elections and after getting an insight into the government’s program statement, we understood that the coming years will be troublesome for employees and unions,“ Gazdik told a news conference evaluating the past year. In his opinion, the most problematic steps of the outgoing government was the amendment to the Labor Code, tax and payroll levy reform and laws on minimum wage and on occupational safety.
The KOZ head insists that the balance of industrial relations has been tilted after the Labor Code was amended to the benefit of employers. He underscored that the ministers‘ vision about the amendment bringing several ten thousand new jobs to the Slovak labor market proved to be false. Gazdik said that jobs are being replaced by contract agents whose number has been increasing, which deprives the state of revenue. The KOZ has therefore turned to the Constitutional Court via SMER-SD MPs to examine constitutionality of the several clauses of the Labor Code.
The amendment to the law on occupational safety and health protection at work that cancels employers‘ duty to safeguard occupational medical service in the first and second category of less risky jobs is at odds with the government’s conventions with the International Labor Organization and the European Commission’s directive. „Some politicians again inclined to profit and sold health of people to certain groups in order to get rid of certain responsibility ensuing for them from conventions,“ said Gazdik. He added that KOZ has turned to respective organizations and demands the situation to be fixed.
SITA