REGIONAL EMPLOYERS’ ORGANISATION REPRESENTATIVES DISCUSS POST-CRISIS OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

How Employers’ Organisations can assist their members to meet the opportunities and challenges brought about by the economic and financial crises will be one of the key topics at a meeting in Belgrade next week.  Twenty one high level representatives from Employers’ Organisations from six countries* of the Western Balkans and Moldova will participate in a two day Conference on 5 and 6 October 2011.

The Conference will focus on issues of importance to employers which form the basis of discussion in national forums with representatives of Governments and Trade Unions.  Minimum wage setting, the impact of non-wage labour costs on enterprises, the role of the International Labour Organisation Conventions and European Union Directives on each country’s labour laws and trends in social security will all be discussed and strategies for individual country action developed.

Senior representatives from the Employers’ Organisations in Spain and Ireland will share their experiences in dealing with the crises in their respective countries.  They will outline the policies advocated on behalf of employers to support enterprises to remain viable and ensure that skilled workers are not lost to the economy.  They will then join colleagues from Employers’ Organisations from Slovenia and Croatia to discuss the role of employer representative bodies in pre-EU accession negotiations.

The Conference is being organised by the ILO Decent Work Technical Support Team and Country Office for Central and Eastern Europe through its Senior Specialist for Employers’ Activities in conjunction with the Serbian Association of Employers.  Financial support is being provided by the Austrian Development Agency through the project “Consolidating the Legal and Institutional Foundations of Social Dialogue in the Countries of the Western Balkans and Moldova”.

The expected outcome is that Employers’ Organisation representatives will be better able to participate in all forums and be able to represent their members more effectively in developing policies to meet the opportunities and challenges in the current environment.

*Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia.