Social dialogue in Central and Eastern Europe: present state and future development

Article abstract:

This article examines social dialogue in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the three Baltic States. It argues that social dialogue in these countries does not measure up to the minimum criteria for effectiveness and has failed to counteract serious reductions in real wages and employment opportunities. It presents ideas on how to improve the social dialogue and suggests how these improvements might be initiated. However, many of the proposals face difficulties because of the weak organizational capacities of the state and especially of the social partners. It is therefore unlikely that these countries will be capable of substantially improving the social dialogue using their own resources; this would require more forceful intervention by the European Union.