Description
Strengthened tripartite social dialogue presupposes strengthening the roles of the partners and the institutions of social dialogue at the national and regional level (e.g. roles and capacity's in legislation development, labour market policies, collective bargaining, etc.). This project will be developing and strengthening mechanisms for social dialogue at all levels and sectors, diversification of channels for participation and sharing information, raising awareness and understanding of the role of the social dialogue, stronger interaction between European institutions, national government, regional and local authorities and civil society, stronger presence and inclusion and more efficiency and influence of social partners at all levels of policy formulation and implementation, mutual cooperation between social partners, better internal decision-making mechanisms; strengthening administrative capacities of social partners - human potential development, training, and sharing experiences. The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) will provide competence and exchange of experience from the Norwegian model.
Summary of project results
In the past several years, social dialogue in Croatia has encountered some difficulties, partly due to accelerated legislative activities for the Croatian accession to the European Union, and partly due to the negative impact of the economic and social crisis that led to measures being taken without properly consulting social partners. Furthermore, although the local (county-level) economic and social councils were established, many of them are not functional. For that reason, improving social dialogue, particularly tripartite dialogue structures and practices were defined as project's main long term goal. Project activities contributed to raising awareness and identifying real problems and needs of the relevant stakeholders, strengthened their partnership, built trust and supported the continuation of mutual cooperation and further development of culture of dialogue and practice of effective dialogue, with the aim of more efficient and harmonious regulation of labour and social relations in Croatia. The publications, developed in the frame of the project, are based on findings of self-evaluations of all three sides of tripartism, and include recommendations and concrete measures for further improvement and development of Croatian tripartite social dialogue. The need for a more inclusive role of the National Economic and Social Councils ( ESC) in the development and implementation of public policies was recognized. ESC's sessions offered an open ground for productive discussions about particular interests of social partners regarding public policies, national strategies, legislation propositions. During project implementation 10 sessions of ESC were held and 39 sessions of ESCs working bodies. Local ESCs increased their activities in order to strengthen the capacities of social partners for participating in the social dialogue on local level. An agreement on establishing the Economic and Social Council has been signed in three counties, thus starting ESC activities on local level. Based on the results of this project, the Ministry of Labour and Pension System is currently in the process of implementing the activity “Collective bargaining as a tool of sustainable development of the social dialogue in Republic of Croatia”, respecting the above mentioned recommendations.
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian partner, LO, has contributed with its competence in order to achieve the project outcome. Brining its expertise to the project, LO has contributed to enhancing the capacity for quality social dialogue, capacity building and education, as well as awareness-raising on the usefulness of social dialogue and the need for strategic planning and policy design.