First national cooperation pact signed in chemicals sector

In May 2007, the social partners in the chemicals sector presented the first national cooperation pact, which they had signed in mid-April in Sofia. The pact is the first such agreement in the sector signed between the National Labour Federation ‘Chemistry and Industry’, the CL Podkrepa National Federation ‘Chemistry’ and the Bulgarian Chamber of the Chemicals Industry. The social partners presented the pact at a joint conference.

On 30 May 2007, as part of a conference entitled the ‘Challenges for industrial policies and sectoral social dialogue in the chemicals industry’, the social partners in the sector presented the first cooperation pact, which they had signed the month before on 19 April 2007. The pact is the first such agreement in the chemicals sector signed between the Bulgarian Chamber of the Chemical Industry (BCCI) and the CITUB National Labour Federation ‘Chemistry and Industry’ (NLF ‘Chemistry and Industry’), affiliated to the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), and the National Federation ‘Chemistry’ (NF ‘Chemistry’), affiliated to the Confederation of Labour ‘Podkrepa’ (CL ‘Podkrepa’). The main purpose of the pact is to provide the conditions to start negotiations on the sector’s collective agreements.

Reactions to pact

The main actors expressed their satisfaction with the pact. The President of CITUB NLF ‘Chemistry and Industry’, Krassimir Krastev, described the pact as ‘an attempt to surmount the disappointment that there is yet no collective agreement in the sector’. According to the BCCI President, Michail Kolchev, the pact brings the cooperation between employers and trade unions to a new level.

At the same time, the General Secretary of the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF), Reinhard Reibsch, wrote in a letter to the participants:

This joint commitment shows a degree of common understanding between social partners and of rapid maturity, probably unprecedented in your region. It is encouraging to see that social dialogue is on the right track in the chemicals sector in a very fresh member of the European Union. The situation is not rosy, we all know, but this initiative will surely pave the way forward.

Difficult negotiations

Up until now, the chemicals industry has been the only sector in Bulgaria without a collective agreement, largely due to difficult negotiations. The first negotiations were initiated by NLF ‘Chemistry and Industry’ and NF ‘Chemistry’ at the beginning of 2002; accordingly, both organisations presented the ‘joint collective agreement project for the chemicals industry’ to the employers, the latter being represented by BCCI. However, in June 2002, the negotiations were unilaterally stopped by BCCI, without providing any reasons or advance notice for the cessation of talks.

After a long break, new negotiations were initiated in 2004. However, once again, issues such as the legal aspects and nature of the contract generated serious disagreements between the parties.

In 2005, the trade unions accepted the assistance of the National Institute of Arbitration and Reconciliation (NIPA) and the subregional office for central and eastern Europe of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Budapest (ILO Budapest), in order to protect social dialogue in the industry and to attract other social partner organisations – such as the Association of Employers in the Petroleum Industry and the Association of Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (ABPhM), members of the newly-formed Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (CEIBG) (BG0606019I).

A working group was therefore established, between the social partners involved in the NIPA-ILO project. In May 2005, the collective agreement in the chemicals industry was presented for signature. However, the signature was again postponed, as BCCI requested the agreement to be adopted by all employer organisations in the industry.

Finally, following another round of difficult negotiations, the first cooperation pact was concluded in the chemicals industry in Bulgaria in April 2007.

Main priority areas

The social partners considered the pact as a significant step towards development of the sector’s social dialogue. In particular, the pact highlights the need for:

• consistent improvement of all forms of information, counselling and coordination between the social partners and ongoing efforts aimed at the integration of social partnership structures in the chemicals sector;

• active participation of the social partners in all institutional forms of social cooperation;

• agreement to negotiate a higher minimum social security threshold for the chemicals sector, subject to yearly branch collective bargaining (BG0609019I);

• encouraging collective bargaining between employers and trade union representatives in chemicals enterprises, in order to achieve a balance between business development and the workers’ interests;

• sustainable efforts to find new opportunities for securing branch collective agreements for the chemicals industry, taking into account the interests of all parties involved in the pact.

Commentary

The cooperation pact – the first such agreement in the sector – represents a significant step towards quality development of the sector’s social dialogue. The pact puts in place the general framework needed for bringing social dialogue closer to the basic principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR), as well as setting common goals with respect to employment and qualification, occupational health and safety, environmental protection, competitiveness and social partnership in chemicals enterprises.

Snezhanka Dimitrova, Institute for Social and Trade Union Research