The future of social dialogue in jeopardy – representatives of employers, local governments and trade unions warn

Employers associated in the National Union of Employers (RÚZ), the Association of Employers' Unions and Associations of the SR (AZZZ SR), the Association of Industrial Unions and Transport (APZD), as well as representatives of local governments associated in the Association of Towns and Municipalities of Slovakia (ZMOS) and representatives of trade union associations in the Confederation of Trade Unions of the SR (KOZ SR) and the Joint Trade Unions of Slovakia (SOS) warn against a controversial proposal by deputies of the National Council of the SR (NR SR) amending and supplementing Act No. 213/1997 Coll. on non-profit organisations providing generally beneficial services, as amended. The social partners emphasise that selected deputies want, through this amendment to the act, to knowingly return Slovakia to the notoriously infamous 1990s. They consider the introduction of new obligations beyond the scope of the already valid act, the observance of which is enforced under the threat of sanctions and fines, to be unacceptable. In this connection they call on the deputies of the NR SR to urgently withdraw the bill from the parliamentary session and not to support it.

The proposal by NR SR deputies Rudolf Huliak (SNS), Dagmar Kramplová (SNS), Milan Garaj (SNS) and Adam Lučanský (SNS) from April this year primarily concerns non-profit organisations, foundations, non-investment funds, civic associations and organisations with international reach. Under the new rules, these would be obliged to publish all received gifts or accepted loans whose value exceeds 5,000 euros. What is to be published is not only the name of the donor and their nationality, but also detailed information about the registered office, identification number, the amount of the contribution and the date of its receipt. This proposal too was in no way discussed with the social partners; the political representatives circumvented the proper comment procedure in this case as well by submitting a deputies' proposal. Members of the Economic and Social Council of the SR (HSR SR) in this connection warn that legislative initiatives of this type require more thorough discussion and proper comment procedures. According to them, the amendment to the act in question will bring an extreme amount of bureaucracy, and that without any real benefit.

As part of the amending proposal, the proposers also introduce a definition of the term lobbying. This is considered to be any direct or indirect influencing of a public official, a senior state employee, or a person who processes documents for the above-mentioned persons. A lobbyist should subsequently, on a quarterly basis, report all meetings with public officials and senior state employees, what was required of them, when the meeting took place and the like. Otherwise they face a fine of up to 1,000. If the information is not, from the state's point of view, accurate, the organisation will receive a further, repeated fine, of up to 10,000 euros. In the event that such discrepancies arise three times in one year, the organisation will be dissolved, i.e. it will cease to exist.  The social partners consider such a setting of the act to be unacceptable, because it in no way distinguishes the organisations in the third sector and does not take into account the substance of their activity. „Take just the tripartite organisations, but also organisations associating local governments or representatives of trade union associations, whose direct activity is active participation in the creation of legislation. The proposers, however, in the proposal in no way distinguish situations in which the state actively requests feedback from the social partners, or the third sector,“ states the position of the social partners. „The bill does not take into account at all that within the standard social dialogue a considerable amount of activities take place that are standardised and whose results are available to the public (interdepartmental comment procedures, tripartite sessions, sessions of parliamentary committees, working groups, advisory bodies, monitoring committees and the like). Will it be necessary to report these activities again as well, which often happen at the request of the state and participation in which often also arises for employers from EU law? The text of the act in the submitted wording also leads to ill-considered, absurd and unenforceable consequences of this type,“ the social partners warn in their position. At the same time they emphasise that the adoption of the act will in practice cause a fundamental decline in the legislation adopted and in individual public policies: „We are here to convey impulses from practice that enable the government to adopt laws reflecting real needs. Such a connection is the basis of a functioning economy and an effective public administration. If this process is complicated, the quality of decisions will be weakened, as well as Slovakia's ability to advance.“

RÚZ, AZZZ, APZD, ZMOS, KOZ SR and SOS in this connection call on the deputies of the NR SR to urgently withdraw the bill from the parliamentary session and not to support it. „The societal demand for greater transparency can be fulfilled only when the system stands on a proper legislative process that ensures clear rules and functional solutions,“  the social partners conclude in their position.