On October 25, 2021, a meeting of WG5 UNP “Social and Labor Policy and Social Dialogue” took place, online on the Zoom platform.
The meeting was held according to the planned agenda.
EaP CSF and UNP news. The participants of the meeting discussed the issues of preparation for the Annual Conference of the UNP on November 9-10, 2021 and 13 of the Assembly of EaP CSF 30 November-2 December 2021. The WG5 coordinator informed the participants about the possibility to apply for a parallel session during the Assembly, which will be held on December 1, and the process of preparation for the WG5 meeting of the EaP CSF. The group members also discussed the need to systematize and provide information on the activities of members of WG5 UNP during 2021 in response to the questionnaire sent to Kirill Kasyan, consultant of WG EaP CSF.
Coordinator’s report. In preparation for the annual UNP conference, the group prepared and approved a report on the results of activities in the period from October 2020 to September 2021. During the reporting period 2 meetings of the group were held, WG5 members took an active part in speeches and discussions during WG5 meeting of EaP CSF in June 2021, at the initiative and participation of WG5 members prepared a statement on Labor law reform of Ukraine, and prepared and presented the results of two initiatives 2020: “Covid – 19 and social dialogue in the tourism industry: EU practice and Ukrainian realities” and “Visible and latent consequences of COVID 19 for the regulation of social and labor relations in the field of SMEs in Ukraine”.
Preparation of proposals for the UNP Position Paper for the EaP Summit. The Position Paper was discussed in response to the Joint Working Document: Reconstruction, Sustainability and Reform: Priorities for the Eastern Partnership after 2020. Joint Staff Working Document – Recovery, resilience and reform: post 2020 Eastern Partnership priorities, which was published on October 20, 2021. During the discussion, the participants supported the position of the EaP CSF Secretariat that although economic recovery is important, the focus on democratic development should be more central to the future policy of the Eastern Partnership; more emphasis needs to be placed on gender issues; it is unclear how stakeholders will be held accountable for fulfilling their promises, including democratic development.
In addition, the participants of the meeting noted that the proposals and recommendations developed by WP5 during the consultations during the development of this document, unfortunately, were not reflected in the final version of the document. However, these proposals remain relevant today, in particular on issues:
- Strengthening social dialogue at all levels and the role of social partners in decision-making within the East;
- Clarification of the social component in the priorities of the East and overcoming poverty;
- Creation of a thematic platform (panel) for WP5;
- Achieving gender equality, combating discrimination, egyzism
- Strengthening collective bargaining regulation of labor relations to preserve and develop labor potential;
- Legal regulation of the status of persons engaged in individual work.
Initiatives of working groups 2021. Two initiatives implemented within WP5 were presented and discussed at the meeting. Vyacheslav Roy and Valery Repin spoke about the implementation of the initiative “Government and Civil Society: Interaction in Public and Social Dialogue”, Svitlana Vnuchko reported on the preparation and implementation of the initiative “Standards of labor relations: EU and Ukraine”.
Work plan for 2022. As a result of the discussion, the participants of the meeting decided to start preparing a work plan for 2022. In particular, in the near future to identify and systematize the main areas of work of WP5 next year, which were the basis for a more detailed document.
The information was provided by Svitlana Vnuchko, WG5 UNP Coordinator
