Even a tough dialogue is better than the absence of any of it.
The representatives of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) took part in the sitting of the tripartite National Council on Labor and Social Issues (NCLSI) at the side of the national trade unions in the last decade of January.
The discussions at the sitting were hot and tough due to burning character of social partnership issues in the country on the one hand and due to fresh air brought to the NCLSI by the BKDP representatives on the other.
Discussing the realization of the General Agreement of 2006 Alexander Yaroshuk, the BKDP leader, drew the attention of the Council members to the issue of contract labor in . He proposed to bring contract labor practice in into the conformity with the universally recognized norms. He paid attention to the terms of current practices and to the necessity in the near 2 or 3 years to transfer the majority of workers on to the unlimited contracts. Earlier the BKDP more than once used to oppose the universal forced short-term contracts in the country. Unfortunately, this time, as many times in the past, the proposal of the leader of the independent national center was not supported by the NCLSI members.
Moreover, the BKDP leader took notice to the cases of discrimination of independent union organizations which till now are taking place. In their turn, the NCLSI members, representing the Government, in their speeches insisted on recognizing that the cooperation between employers and trade unions at the enterprises was implemented in a perfect manner and without a hitch. Alexander Yaroshuk cited as examples the spesific cases of pressure on the BKDP affiliates and their members at OAO “GrodnoAzot”, UP “Lyes”(Baran,Vitebskregion) and at some other companies. Despite the fact, that the General Director of OAO “GrodnoAzot Alexander Radevich is a member of the NCLSI, nevertheless for 2 years he waged a purposeful campaign on elimination of the independent union at his company.
The discussion on withdrawingfrom the GSP system of preferences in trade with EU countries was accompanied by hot emotions. It is well known, that this decision was initiated by the EU because of the continued violations of trade union rights in . The NCLSI members tried to lay all the blame for that on independent unions and proposed the leader of the Congress to withdraw the complaint about trade union rights violations lodged in due time and sent to the International labor Organization (ILO). “I can forward thousands of petitions but all of them will be illegal since the violations of trade union rights have already been fixed by the ILO and the appropriate assessment has already been made. It is ridiculous and silly as to deny the violations as well as to try to disavow them. So as to avoid possible negative decisions that can be taken by the EU the Government has the only right way to go: - to eliminate the current violations and not to commit new ones”. – said Alexander Yaroshuk.
“ But when the Government, instead of taking responsible measures, will continue the practice of working out such documents as the Conception of the new draft of “ The Law on trade unions” the chances for Belarus to loose annually 400 millions of EURO will grow many times”—underlined Alexander Yaroshuk. He handed the alternative draft Law on trade unions jointly designed by the BKDP and Belarusian Radio and Electronics Workers’Unionover to three Co-chairpersons of the NCLSI.
Despite the hot character of discussions the BKDP gave positive assessment of the NCLSI sitting. “The most important thing is that we have started to communicate to each other. It is absolutely true that our views and approaches towards many aspects of the labor relations differ from those of the Government and the FPB. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to overcome this problem if all the parties concerned will be looking for the moments which unite their positions but will not be focusing on the moments that come apart. In the long run, we are the citizens of one country. No one can cast doubts on our common goal - to take care of the interests of the workers and of all the people of ”— summed up Alexander Yaroshuk.
| 01.02.2007 |
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