On 25 and 26 June 2024, a seminar entitled "Right to collective bargaining and action" was held in Belgrade under the organization of EUROFEDOP (Europese Federatie van het Overheidspersoneel). The seminar was organized in cooperation with EZA and funded by the European Union.
As per usual, the seminar started with the opening words. The first to speak to the participants was the former president of the National Trade Union Post and Telecom (RSR-HPT, Croatia), Mr. Jadranko Vehar. Next was Mr. Norbert Schnedl, the president of the European Federation of Employees in Public Service (EUROFEDOP). Finally, Mr. Sladan Bobić, President from the Civil Servants Federation of Serbia (SDSS, Serbia), as a representative of the Serbian organizations, addressed the attendees. Each of them pointed out the importance of collective negotiation and bargaining.
After that, Mr. Lazar Jovevski, a full-time professor from the Faculty of Law, Labour Law and Social Law department, University "Ss. Cyril and Methodius" in Skopje (North Macedonia), gave a brief presentation and moderated the entire event. After the introductory presentation by Prof. Jovevski, the first topic, "Collective bargaining," was opened, where it was discussed about the position of the trade unions. The insight on this topic was given by Ivica Cvetković, President of the Jurisprudence Employees Federation to Serbia (JEFS, Serbia) and Andreja Janković as part of his team, also the employer's position on this question was elaborated by Mr. Filip Lazović, the Deputy Secretary General from Unija poslodavaca Crne Gore (UPCG, Montenegro).
The next topic was called "Disputes and their solutions", where Mrs. Dragana Djordjevic, the President of the Autonomous Union of Employees in Cultural Institutions of Serbia (AUECIS, Serbia), spoke on the given topic. After that, Ph.D. Ivica Lazović - the director of the Republic Agency for the Peaceful Settlement of Labor Disputes (Serbia), spoke about the improvement of social dialogue by settling individual and collective labor disputes. When the presentations on the given topics were finished, there was a fruitful debate, moderated by Prof. Lazar Jovevski with certain conclusions.
The second day started with the topic "The right to strike in the public sector". The first one that spoke on this matter from the position of trade unions was Mr. Alain Mazeau, the Vice-President of EUROFEDOP; Fédération CFTC de la fonction publique territoriale (CFTC-FFPT, France). After that there was a panel discussion, moderated by Prof. Lazar Jovevski, in which took place Mr. Jovan Protić, National Coordinator for Serbia, International Labour Organization expert (ILO, Serbia); as a representative from the trade union Mrs. Ivana Mihajlovic, Deputy Secretary General, Union of Free Trade Unions of Montenegro, Mr. Jadranko Vehar, former President on RSR-HPT (Croatia); and the last representative from the trade unions, Mr. Karl Dalton, Secretary General, Prison Officers‘ Association (POA, Ireland), also there was Mr. Aleksandar Radosavljevic, Deputy Minister of Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue of Serbia.
During this discussion, the moderator, Prof. Lazar Jovevski, emphasized three main questions and gave certain conclusions. The conclusions - added value for the social dialogue were pointed out by Mr. Bert Van Caelenberg, the Secretary General of EUROFEDOP, and Mr. Jadranko Vehar, the former President of RSR-HPT. They expressed their gratitude for this successful seminar and their hope for future collaborations.