New collective agreement at Slovak TV contributes to director's dismissal

In August 2002, the Slovak parliament, on the recommendation of the Slovak Television Council, dismissed the director of Slovak Television (STV). The grounds were that he had signed a new collective agreement, which, according to the Council, awards STV management excessive redundancy pay entitlement, in the light of STV's financial losses and debts, as well as providing for high general wage increases.

Slovak Television (Slovenská televíziea, STV) is a public institution, and its director is elected and removed by parliament (Národná rada Slovenskej republiky). STV has approximately 2,000 employees and is in long-term financial difficulties. Currently, it owes more than SKK 1 billion in spite of the fact that TV licence-holders contribute annually to its activities. Moreover, in 2001 the STV received more than SKK 250 million from the state budget, while the government approved a contribution of a further SKK 500 million to be used for a development project. Additionally, in 2002, the government approved almost SKK 500 million as one-off cash injection, so that STV can get out of debt and meet other commitments.

At the end of June 2002, against the backdrop of this difficult financial situation, the existing collective agreement for STV expired. Several trade union organisations are active in STV and they started negotiations over a new collective agreement. The largest union organisation in STV is the local organisation of the Trade Union of Workers in Mass Media (Odborový zväz masmédií), which has approximately 800 members and is a member of the Confederation of Trade Unions of the Slovak Republic (Konfederácia odborových zväzov, KOZ SR). The other unions represented at STV are professional associations with low membership, such as the Trade Union of Audio-visual Workers and two organisations of audio workers, which are not members of KOZ SR.

In June 2002, the local organisation of the Trade Union of Workers in Mass Media concluded a new collective agreement on behalf of all STV employees, based on negotiations in which representatives of the abovementioned professional associations also took part. The director of STV signed the collective agreement on behalf of the management and three representatives of the Trade Union of Workers in Mass Media signed it on behalf of the employees.

The new collective agreement provides for a pay increase averaging 10% for all STV employees and for high redundancy payments - to be paid to employees if they are dismissed for organisational reasons - amounting to six to 11 months' pay for ordinary employees and 10-12 months' pay for 90 senior managers. Furthermore, the new collective agreement provides for an increase in annual paid leave by one week. The new agreement's provisions have increased the demand for financial resources in STV. The increase in employees' pay means an annual increase in wage costs of about SKK 42 million. Furthermore, if all senior managers were made redundant and granted the redundancy payments set out in the agreement, the wage costs of STV could increase by another SKK 12 million.

Following the conclusion of the agreement, the Slovak Television Council (Rada Slovenskej televízie) - a body which is elected by parliament and is responsible for STV's objectivity and independence - decided unanimously at a meeting held on 23 July 2002 that STV's director should be dismissed, and proposed to parliament that it take this course of action. The Slovak Television Council justified its decision by referring to the new collective agreement, which it stated gave excessive protection to STV management in relation to redundancy payments and provided for wage increases for all employees which would only increase STV's existing debts and financial difficulties.

The director of STV did not agree with the Council's decision, arguing that the new collective agreement had been negotiated in line with the law. At the same time, he argued that STV has made money and that this could be used for wage increases. He also had denied that he would benefit from the agreed higher redundancy payments for managers, as such compensation does not apply to the STV director.

In spite of these arguments, on 8 August 2002, the parliamentary Committee for Culture and Mass Media recommended to parliament that the STV director be removed from office. At the last meeting of its present term, held on 20 August 2002, parliament decided to remove the director, with 82 members of parliament out of 92 present voted in favour. However, parliament did not elect the candidate suggested as the new STV director and an open competition for the vacancy was subsequently announced.

The dismissed director had authorised his two 'statutory representatives' to manage the STV before receiving his letter of dismissal. He remains an employee of STV, having exchanged his job position with one of his statutory representatives and thus become head of the STV commercial department. As an implication of this change, in the event of being made redundant, the ex-director could receive high compensation in accordance with the redundancy pay provisions of the collective agreement, which he would not have received as director of STV.