From 9th - 11st March 2025 took place in Sofia / Bulgaria the Perspective and Evaluation Seminar about „Quality Jobs and Decent Wages: for a Workers-centred Agenda of Trade Unions from the EU Candidate Countries” within the framework of the special project for workers’ organizations in the EU Candidate Countries. It was organised by PODKREPA CL (Confederation of Labour PODKREPA), in cooperation with EZA and funded by the European Union. 40 representatives of workers’ organisations from Bulgaria, Germany, Slovakia, Serbia, Albania, Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Romania, Austria participated in the seminar.
The seminar’s objective
To exchange experiences between EU member states and candidate countries on shaping social dialogue at various levels
To support the development of strategies for setting up viable social dialogue practices in the candidate countries suited to European practices.
To convey knowledge on European values for strengthening and expanding awareness of behavioural approaches and potential solutions in the context of social partnership
Description of the seminar
The seminar was opened by welcome addresses and interventions on the recent political situation, on the main economic and social challenges and on the future of the EU enlargement process. Political session was followed by short information on the state of play, main challenges and achievements from the EZA Special project for workers’ organisations in EU candidate countries.
Two key note speeches introduced the topic and laid down the main topic for exchange among participants on:
The role of social dialogue as an effective mechanism to reform civil society, support democratic institutions and respect for workers’ rights;
Democracy at work and European industrial relations – the challenges ahead the EU candidate countries in achieving changes in policies and legislation in the field of labour and social protection.
Two special panels were dedicated to the importance of the Directive on adequate minimum wages in the EU and the impact of the rising costs of living on consumers’ behaviour. Those panels had a special focus on the necessity to guarantee targeted protection to the most vulnerable groups of workers.
On the second day works were dedicated to the national income policies and to the main challenges, trade unions from candidate countries are facing to secure decent living standard and quality jobs.
The discussion forum ''Legislation is important but for the working people social dialogue and collective bargaining are vital' has an emphasis on the importance of social dialogue in current complex and dynamic work environment.
The conclusive round table ''Main problems, gaps and challenges, faced by workers' organizations in the EU candidate countries provides opportunity to the trade union leaders to present concrete proposals on:
How EZA could provide further support to trade unions improving their activities;
What kind of training would help to strengthen their capacity to negotiate and to influence national policies on employment.
Discussion forum and conclusive round table were followed by a wrap-up and evaluation session. After each panel there was time for Questions & Exchange. The seminar ended with summary of the main points of discussion and with proposals for topics, to be included in the coming seminars in the framework of the EZA Special project for workers’ organizations in the EU Candidate Countries.
Key ideas
EU’s enlargement policy includes a dual content. First, it is a roadmap for transformation and a response to pressing geopolitical challenges. Second, at a large extend it is a merit-based technical processwith determinated clusters of negotiating chapters to close. A process, primary managed by the European Commission /EC/. The new EC approach to the enlargement, applied since last year, encourages member states to convene regular summits with candidate countries. Similar combination of political will and administrative capacity makes believe that the potential of the EU accession process will increase.
Even concerning the so-called "fundamental” chapters, Candidate countries /CCs/ are facing persistent problems in areas such as the respect of human rights, the rule of law, and democratic institutions. Obviously, CCs are still not showing significant improvements in terms of democracy and civil society. Thus, there is still a huge room for improvement in fighting corruption in centra/local governments, in state institutions, in the strengthening of the justice system. The ‘wrong’ combination between political/economic networking and state capture is a burning issue. Political struggles and instability are making difficult even the survival of ordinary people. In result, citizens loose more and more their hope that the situation may change, this nourishes the apathy, the lack of desire to associate and to fight collectively for rights.
For many years CCs have strived towards attaining more democratic societies and functioning market economies, but there remains a lot to be done yet. Civil societies in CCs are still fragmented and divided, with very low degree of social cohesion, mainly triggered by distrust in public institutions and the political elite. In similar deteriorating institutional landscape is difficult to maintain the independence of workers’ organizations. The lack of access to information, limited resources, and opportunities for engagement with public debates are framing trade unions' involvement in the policymaking processes. Moreover, that reality restricts trade unions’ ability to advocate for decent jobs and good working conditions.
In similar complicated reality, it is difficult for workers’ organizations to address the wide range of interconnected challenges that undermine the well-being of workers and to overcome the burden of inadequate remuneration, which fails to provide dignified standard of living and contribute to poverty and to social injustice. In addition, because CCs are trying to attract foreign investments, national governments and companies are adopting deregulations, lowering labor standards, and weakening social protections. But this additionally undermines the respect of workers’ rights, perpetuates precarious employment, and stifles the possibility of sustainable development.
Logically, partnership and cooperation between social partners are not a priority, they remain limited, employers’ organizations are weak. Trade unions are navigating a hostile environment. Social dialogue meetings and collective negotiations are mostly sporadic and fluid, with modest success or without concrete results. Trade union representatives are only formally consulted on accession process, but their opinion is not considered properly. In this context, the need to involve social partners is paramount. It becomes very important that workers’ organizations are actively involved in the policy-making and monitoring processes
to endorse the necessary reforms and changes.
Two serious challenges are remaining very poorly addressed - the demographic collapse and the corruption. Increasingly, CCs are witnessing shortages of highly skilled labor, which in return limits the interest of foreign investors, creates difficult situation for local labor markets, puts additional pressure on critical sectors such as the medical field and basic service providers. This continuous wave of emigration is drawing away mostly well-educated and skilled workers. Much of it is due to the widespread pessimism about the future and the corruption.
Trade unions from CCs must be in the driver’s seat of national actions and initiatives to overcome those two problems, namely by:
- proposing and supporting broad and long-term reform to improve domestic conditions with focus on the needs, demands, and problems of working people;
- creating real perspectives for workers by improving working conditions, for instance with more secure contracts and better working hours, by strengthening workers’ rights, and enlarging the scope of collective bargaining;
- undertaking very concrete actions in sectors that are especially negatively affected by emigration;
- be actively engaged with the drafting and implementation of anti-corruption laws and strategies;
- stay on guard and constantly maintain the trade union ‘watchdog’ function of anti-corruption;
- implement campaigns to increase public awareness of the impact of corruption;
CCs have low collective bargaining coverage especially in private sectors, leaving workers with limited protections and little opportunity to negotiate wages and working conditions. The problem of sectoral bargaining is evident across all countries. The legal framework for collective bargaining is in place, but in practice and mainly at company level, collective agreements simply copy the existing legal framework. Topics, such as climate and technological change, remote work, part-time work arrangements, skills transformation are not included in the issues to be negotiated.
Driven by social, economic, and technological changes, labour markets are becoming more flexible, At the same time, atypical work is on the upswing, often due to the lack of well paid, high-quality jobs. This translates into growth in novel employment relationships, which differ from “traditional work” in terms of working conditions, content, and regulatory and legal ramifications. These forms of work offer more flexibility, yet they present risks not yet adequately addressed by trade unions.
Conclusions and recommendations
Faced to today's global geopolitical realities, EU enlargement is becoming a necessity. At the same time, to become members, CCs must demonstrate tangible progress on reforms, align with EU values, transform their economies, and learn looking forward together, while overcoming differences. Strengthening social dialogue is crucial for addressing socio-economic challenges and preparing for EU membership. In that respect, the process of EU accession provokes trade unions from CCs to think of new approaches, related to their contribution to the development and implementation of public policies, especially on the social and labour issues.
In most of the CCs, the window of opportunity opened by the EU accession policies fails to produce a consistent effect in terms of advancing civil and worker rights, or in endorsing democratic practices of dialogue and partnership. This is basically since political elite and national governments mostly pretend to implement reforms. In this respect, changes in the way CCs are governed are needed – both, in institutions and in decision-making processes. In such a crucial moment trade unions, as genuine part of the active civil society, must mobilize and initiate national actions, protests with demand for proper implementation of radical reforms, and to guarantee that working people voices will remain central in shaping a truly transformative EU accession process.
Trade unions from CCs must take concrete steps in tree main directions:
- to improve the quality of jobs;
- to increase the opportunities for young people to get good jobs;
- to ensure that the national workforce has the skills required for meeting the needs of the labour market;
Workers’ organizations in the CCs need to reconnect to the grassroots and to develop better synergies to increase civic engagement. In addition, new trends in the world of work require a more robust approach to workforce management and negotiation. Due to that new reality at work, social dialogue and collective bargaining are not only about ensuring fair pay but also about creating a sustainable future for workers. In that respect, trade unions from CCs are requiring for the future EZA’s trainings to include good practices and relevant tools, dedicated to increase their capacity to engage in collective negotiation and to increase their visibility within the society.
The ability of trade unions from CCs to attract young workers into membership and activism is weak. This needs to change, because trade unions can build and grow only by engaging with young workers with compelling offers, and in a language that resonates with those workers. That is the reason while, trade unions from CCs are demanding concrete support to acquire knowledge, motivation, and tactics on how to attract young people in their organizations.