Call for Expression of Interest for

Professional Expertise in the Field of Promoting Social Dialogue

Building Capacity of Employers’ Organisations (EOs)

Budget line: IPA – Human Resources Development 04 06 01

MKD/13/02/MKD

Introduction and background

The beneficiary country gained the candidate status for the accession to European Union (EU) in 2005 and a number of progress reports by the European Commission (EC) indicated the need to further develop social dialogue (SD) among main stakeholders in the economy and at all levels. The country has a clear objective to attract foreign direct investment and create more and better jobs. Developed social dialogue and strong SD institutions will give a signal to the potential investors that the country has stable industrial relations.

The Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) project on Promoting Social Dialogue is funded by the EU and is being implemented by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) under the leadership of the ILO Budapest office. The overall objective of this project is to extend and enhance tripartite and bipartite social dialogue as a means to achieve economic growth and social progress. This will be achieved through institutional and legislative improvement along with activities aimed at strengthening the capacities of tripartite actors in the labour market to engage effectively in social dialogue. The project has a comprehensive approach and aims to provide technical support to both institutions and participants in social dialogue processes, including collective bargaining at the national, branch, and local level.

The project consists of three interlinked components, designed to address challenges which national tripartite actors are currently facing in a coherent and complementary manner:

Component 1: Enhancing tripartite social dialogue on national and local level

This component focuses on capacity building activities to be delivered by the ILO technical specialists along with practitioners from EU member states (MS) on topics such as wage fixing in the public sector, minimum wage setting and its relation to the informal economy, employment relationship, social security reforms, active labour market policies, youth employment, collective bargaining benefits including wage-productivity linkage among others to the members of the ESC and its permanent secretariat. The project will also facilitate the creation of an external “pool” of technical expertise the ESC will be able to draw on in order to expand its research scope.

Component 2: Encouraging collective bargaining and setting sectoral collective bargaining infrastructures

This component of the project will enhance the capacity of both the government and the social partners to increase the effectiveness of collective bargaining. Measures will be devised and implemented with ILO assistance in the framework of a national tripartite Action Plan.

Technical capacity of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy to pro-actively perform its key functions to promote collective bargaining including the setting of enabling regulatory and institutional frameworks will be strengthened. At the same time, the capacity of employers’ organizations and trade unions to negotiate effectively and to reach out to potential members will be reinforced. The latter will be achieved through implementation of a training programme on how to effectively engage in collective bargaining targeting employers’ and workers’ organizations at national and sectoral level.

Component 3: Establishing an operational amicable settlement of labour disputes

Under this component, the project will assist in the establishment of an operational and cost-effective mechanism for amicable settlement of labour disputes, and will support the creation and training of a roster of specialised labour mediators/conciliators. Once implemented, the new mechanism is expected to support the social partners in preventing and resolving disputes arising in the process of collective bargaining.

External collaborators/consulting companies working with employers’ organisations

As detailed above, independent and representative employers’ organizations are one of the pre-requisites of a sound and stable industrial relations system. Component 2 will particularly focus on the capacity building of employers’ organizations. The present call for expression of interest aims at prospecting experts who will be engaged in the capacity building of employers’ organizations. Activities would be coordinated by Mr Dragan Radić, the Senior Specialist for Employers’ Activities of the Budapest ILO office.

Local and international collaborators and/or consulting companies working in the following fields of expertise and interested in completing assignments detailed below are encouraged to submit their applications:

After completing the above listed activities, EOs would have a strategic plan, a governance charter (a document establishing a governance structure of the organisation and the way governance is implemented) and a marketing/communication plan designed and approved by their respective Board of Directors (BOD). EOs would also develop a guide for employers on collective bargaining and a minimum of three position papers relating to enabling business environment during the project.

Application of External Collaborators/Consulting companies

Consulting companies and/or persons interested to collaborate with the IPA/ILO project on promoting social dialogue one or more of the above areas of expertise are kindly requested to submit their expression of interest by November 24, 2014 to the e-mail address radic@ilo.org and kalovska@ilo.org Individual collaborators should submit their CV and a short description indicating that they have appropriate professional knowledge and experience to participate in the mentioned project activities, as well as contact data.

Individual Candidates should fulfil the following requirements:

–     Minimum of 5 years of experience in the corresponding area of expertise;

–     Fluency in the English language and familiarity with professional terminology;

–     Strong analytical skills and experience in similar type of work;

–     Computer literacy;

–     University degree;

–     Client-oriented approach, namely tact and ability to work with people and effective provision of services;

–     Ability to manage the flow of information and adhere to deadlines and commitments;

–     Positive and constructive attitude;

–     Bank account suitable for receiving transfers from abroad

Consulting companies should submit the following:

–     Cover letter (company overview)

–     Bidder’s prior experience in the relevant field

–     List of references

According to ILO project rules, experts cannot be civil servants. The ILO retains the right to accept or reject any application. Selection of candidates will be done according to ILO project procedures. Candidates will be contacted by the EO activity coordinator and they will receive the terms of reference with detailed requirements and descriptions of tasks. All candidates selected for a particular assignment will sign an external collaboration contract with the ILO for the specific task and for a specific duration; this by no means constitutes permanent employment by the ILO