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.

The aim of the seminar was that the two centres get to know each other better, approach their views and open space for establishment of regional trade union cooperation. On the first day of the seminar, MOSZ representatives communicated to their colleagues in TUC NEZAVISNOST their own experiences in the area of social dialogue – both in the period when Hungary conducted pre-accession negotiations and in the period when it became a full-fledged EU Member State. These experiences are highly valuable for social partners in Serbia.

The second day of seminar was devoted to the establishment of regional cooperation.

After the seminar, the following conclusions have been adopted:

 Following the interest and desire of TUC NEZAVISNOST and the National Federation of Workers’ Councils in Hungary (MOSZ) – these two representative and relevant trade union centres will continue their cooperation, including its expansion to regional and industry levels (frontier regions, counties, cities, certain industries and activities), with the support and assistance of other national and international trade union organisations (EZA, ETUC, ITUC…).

Cooperation will be concretised through the following activities:

  1. Assistance to be provided by MOSZ to TUC NEZAVISNOST, in the form of transfer of its own experiences and examples of good practice, with the aim of better, equitable and complete involvement in European integrations – through education (seminars, workshops, round tables…) for trade union leaderships and grassroots, as well as their experts engaged in the process of EU integrations;
  2. Exchange of study and other visits and other forms of cooperation in the aim of conveying concrete experiences in certain activities where good results have been achieved (automobile industry, agriculture, tourism, utility services…), with the ultimate goal of strengthening the position of TUC NEZAVISNOST and industrial unions within its scope in branch social dialogue in the EU;
  3. Establishment of joint coordinating and other working bodies, to transfer experiences (regional cooperation, EU integrations), initiate and coordinate joint bilaterally and multilaterally (with other countries in the region) agreed and organised activities;
  4. Joint projects – use of all available sources (FAR….), application for projects from IPA funds (partners), assistance in the drafting of own projects in UGS, particularly as regards the compliance with certain standards and forms (training for project writing and applications), TUC NEZAVISNOST as a partner of MOSZ in certain projects from the European Social Fund, to acquire experiences for the time when we, as an EU Member State, would be able to use these resources;
  5. Concrete cooperation in the area of information and culture:
  • internet trade-union TV,
  • space for the counterpart trade union organisation (TUC or MOSZ, respectively) in the public media in both countries,
  • organization of meetings between trade unions of culture organisations from Hungary and Serbia, particularly APV, including institutions of the Hungarian National Council which operate in the Hungarian language, and in Hungary particularly including Self-Government of Serbs in Hungary, which operate in the Serbian language.
  • establishment of the regional trade union council, as a forum for coordination of activities, with representatives of both parties.
  1. Joint activities in the area of employment and recruitment:
  • preparing an analysis of the labour force circulation between Serbia (APV) and Hungary,
  • initiative for the conclusion of intergovernmental agreement on migration of labour force,
  • establishment of social cooperatives (assistance of MOZS in the implementation of projects to be prepared by TUC or joint activity),
  • activities for the promotion of occupational safety and health.