European Trade Union Committee for Education

On 8 September 2016, the ETUCE and EFEE held the Social dialogue Round Table meeting in Budapest, Hungary, to promote social dialogue in the education sector. The Round Table is part of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in Education (ESSDE) capacity building project II.

Delegates from the Hungarian education trade unions and employer organisations met around a table to discuss the current social dialogue situation in the education sector in Hungary; the achievements and future developments of the social dialogue at European level, as well as the ESSDE objectives, work programme and achievements. Participants discussed how to strengthen the links and improving communication flows between the social dialogue at national and European level.

The objective of the Round Table to bring social partners together and to engage in an exchange of information between Hungarian partners and the European representatives were successfully met. During the whole day the participants contributed in an very open and direct manner depicting the Hungarian national social dialogue situation, its impediments regarding the current framework and the difficulty to conduct proper social dialogue.

Hungary is suffering the impact of several reform measures which are centralizing the education system and did not involve social partners in real negotiation, increasing privatisation trends and several setbacks of the teachers’ career model. Moreover, teachers’ professional issues are treated outside formal consultations with social partners. The meeting highlighted the problems of the present situation, which were clearly depicted by Ms Piroska Gallo, President of the Teachers’ Union of Hungary (PSZ-SEHUN). She also denounced the lack of implementation of collective agreements in the education sector. It was noted from both the employers and the trade unions that dialogue and cooperation is essential. Only by finding out who they are, where they stand and what they wish and can do, social partners could find the best solutions for teachers, students and the whole school community.

The project external expert (ICF) and the Finnish social partners (Mr Pekka Pankkonen, OAJ, Finland and Mr Kauppinen Esa-Pekka from the Association of Finnish Independent Education Employers) provided additional information on the EU social dialogue mechanisms and the implementation of social dialogue in Finland. They provided examples on the long process that led to an improvement of the social dialogue in Finland on both sides, indicating where both social partners could learn from each other. The round table in Hungary has been perceived as an productive method to further develop social dialogue.