Die Definition der Brennpunkte des sozialen Dialogs aus europäischer Perspektive sowie Handlungsmöglichkeiten für Arbeitnehmerorganisationen waren die Schwerpunkte des EZA-Startseminars, das vom 27. bis 28. November 2014 in Budapest, Ungarn, stattfand und in Zusammenarbeit mit MOSZ (Munkástanácsok Országos Szövetsége) und mit Unterstützung der Europäischen Union organisiert wurde.
On September 18-19, 2014, EZA organised a two-day seminar in cooperation with MOSZ (National Federation of Workers’ Councils), at Rubin Hotel Budapest, titled “Strategies for Workers' Organisations to Design Employment and Social Policy with European Funding Possibilities”. Imre Palkovics, President of MOSZ, Nándor Csepreghy, Deputy State Secretary responsible for the Communication of Development Policy, and Roswitha Gottbehüt, Secretary General of EZA, participated in the press conference.
Leaderships of TUC NEZAVISNOST and Hungarian trade union centre MOSZ met on a joint seminar held in Novi Sad on 30 September and 1 October 2014 in the scope of the EZA project “Strengthening the Social Dialogue – Shaping European Integration”: special project of employee organizations in countries from the Western Balkans. Participants in the seminar included top leadership and expert labour legislation teams of both trade union centres, representatives of the TUC NEZAVISNOST Provincial Board for the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (APV) and the Vojvodina Provincial Secretariat for Employment, Economy and Gender Equality, as well as an EZA representative.
Manifesto 2014: Fiscal incentives are indispensable prequisites Worldwide practical evidence and a wide range of academic research support the view that a proper legal environment and the provision of suitable fiscal incentives are indispensable prerequisites for any policy truly aiming the development of employee share ownership. Moreover, such evidence and research also show that fiscal incentives always pay off medium/long term and in many ways. Organisations promoting employee owner-ship around the world have demanded persistently and consistently supportive legislations including fiscal incentives for the common good (evidenced in additional growth and profitability, the spread of wealth, contribution to economic and social stability). New fiscal incentives pave the way to new encouraging development, while political decisions reducing or cutting such incentives always lead to regression.
The Trade Union of Young Workers at the Szeged University (SZTE FIDO – with Hungarian acronym) held its first meeting on 28 May 2014. Gábor Holecz, vice-president for the public sector of MOSZ, also participated at the event, talking about the situation and role of trade unions, with special emphasis on his own organisation, the Trade Union of Customs and Finance Guards. A further guest speaker was Imre Szabó, head of the Youth section at MOSZ, placing the emphasis on the need for the young generation to increase its involvement in trade union work, supporting his arguments with several examples from the past in the context of higher education.
The Annual meeting of the MOSZ General Assembly was held on 30 May 2014 at Hotel Rubin, in the usual well-organised manner, with pleasant and informative debates on substantive issues and enthusiastic guidance, which serves as orientation for the coming year. One of the most important points of the General Assembly was the farewell to István Kovács, Head of the Supervisory Board, who resigned from this position after long years of work. The new Supervisory Board was also elected, delegates elected László Szente as the new head of the Board, whose members are Ferenc Buzder, Csaba Horváth, Miklós Kucsera, Miklós Sümegvári. Sándor Herega was elected as head of the Credentials and Nominations Committee, whose members are Ferenc Bélavári and László Horvai.
The seminar was opened by Mr. Imre Palkovics, President of the National Federation of Workers’ Councils. The president said: the theme of the seminar chosen by MOSZ and EZA together is highly topical, which is even more relevant now with the EP elections approaching. The question of the opportunities for trade union cooperation at European level within the framework of EZA is raised with this respect. We can also inform the political parties running at the elections about the outcome of the exchange of ideas, shared concerns and objectives of the representatives of the Central-and East European countries and ’old’ MS.
As a result of negotiations taking two months, the Association of Road Transport Enterprises and trade unions came to an agreement this week on the wage increase guaranteed for 2014.
On 10 February, a Eurofedop delegation visited Budapest, the visit was organised by two affiliated organisations of the National Federation of Workers’ Councils. The representatives of the organisation were given an insight into the area of the Hungarian health and social care sector and law-enforcement (penal institutions, prison).
Mr. Imre Palkovics, President of the National Federation of Workers’ Councils announced the following on Wednesday at the press conference in Budapest: “ The National Federation of Workers’ Councils launched an information system on adult training and education. On the website www.jokepzes.hu, the high quality out-of-school education and training institutions for adults can be found. The intention of the trade union organisation with the launching of this labour market service was to provide information for workers on access to good quality training and education for adults, which might be necessary for them to keep their jobs or find new employment.”