2025
February 17. 2025
Inflation surges once again
According to data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, inflation in January skyrocketed to 3.9%. The trend is clear, it's gaining momentum, and we're only at the start of the year. If this trajectory continues, we could be facing an even sharper rise in the months ahead...
2024
June 18. 2024
THE ARBITRATOR HAS BEEN ASSIGNED
Ministry of Labor, Social matters and family was assigned by an arbitrator on 18/06/2024.
We are waiting for a decision from that moment. Just for comparison, dealing with a mediator took approx. 3 months.
We will keep you informed of further progress or details inform soon. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
May 30. 2024
UNITY ASKED FOR THE DIRECT ASSIGNMENT OF AN ARBITRATOR
With regard to the subject of the employer's business, the Act on Collective Bargaining allows employees' representatives to request the assignment of an arbitrator separately.The trade union organization UNITY therefore asked the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family to assign an arbitrator.
We will keep you informed of further progress or details inform soon. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
May 30. 2024
UNITY ASKED FOR THE DIRECT ASSIGNMENT OF AN ARBITRATOR
With regard to the subject of the employer's business, the Act on Collective Bargaining allows employees' representatives to request the assignment of an arbitrator separately.The trade union organization UNITY therefore asked the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family to assign an arbitrator.
We will keep you informed of further progress or details inform soon. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
May 22. 2024
April 24. 2024
PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE ARBITRATOR
On 24/04/2024, representatives of the UNITY trade union delivered a request for participation to the employer at the proceedings before the arbitrator. Again, this is an assignee of the Ministry of Labour. Well, in this case, already it is not a recommendation but a decision that both parties must accept.
We will keep you informed of further progress or details inform soon. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
April 15. 2024
March 31. 2024
THE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT EXPIRED TODAY
What does this mean for employees?
Employees currently do not have a guaranteed minimum wage for annual increases, so the decision is entirely up to the employer. As already communicated to HR, this year's budget (In Cycle) is roughly at the level of half of last year's inflation. Here, of course, we recommend also appealing to your managers, who also have influence over the so-called Out of Cycle budget. Through they also know how to increase the wages of employees.
The severance pay in case of termination has currently returned to the legal level and is therefore also on to the employer, whether he decides to increase it or not.
Benefits such as CAFETERIA, examination in a medical facility, life insurance, allowance for DDS, an allowance at the birth of a child, and others are part of the corporate program and were there before signing of the first CA. Their stay is therefore decided by the employer.
Most of the other points of the old collective agreement, such as the payment of wages during PN & OCR, flexible working hours, extra paternity leave, and others, however, remain valid due to the fact that these have been incorporated into of the work order in 2022. Since this document can only be changed with consent unions, the given points are currently guaranteed.
NOTICE:
It is also necessary to prepare for the alternative when the employer will not sign the new collective agreement even in the near future period. In this case, according to the law, the Social Fund will be frozen and there will be no food allowance continue to be subsidized from this financial source.
Of course, the employees will not lose these funds. These will be accumulated on the account since the employer is obliged by law to create these and they will be distributed to the employees at the time of the agreement / signing of the new CA.
We will keep you informed of further progress or details inform soon. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
March 28. 2024
The negotiation with the participation of the mediator has ended
Mediation proceedings before the representative of the Ministry of Labor ended with the delivery of her compromise proposal on the disputed points of the collective agreement.
The following points were primarily part of this proposal:
1. Annual wage increase by inflation (details can be found as part of the newsletter);
2. Annual increase in the real wage (details can be found as part of the newsletter);
3. Reimbursement of HOMEOFFICE costs (details can be found as part of the newsletter).
This compromise proposal was accepted by representatives of the UNITY Trade Union on the day of receipt.
We will keep you informed of further progress or details inform soon. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
February 28. 2024
Status update from the second round of collective agreement negotiation with the participation of a mediator.
On February 28, 2024, a second meeting was held with the participation of the mediator. It should be noted that no offer has been presented by the employer so far. The primary justification was waiting for the head office's opinion.
We understand that the decisions themselves are often made outside of Slovakia, and at the same time we hope that the need for more time signals the employer's real interest in the issue. After all, finding funds can be really difficult.
We will keep you informed of further progress or details inform soon. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
February 14. 2024
Status update from the first round of collective agreement negotiation with the participation of a mediator.
As we already announced in the past, representatives of the UNITY trade union organization were on 07/12/2023 forced to declare a dispute on the conclusion of a collective agreement and request the intervention of the Ministry of Labour
social affairs and family. During the month of January, we were assigned a mediator who currently organizes meetings between employer and employee representatives.
On 14/02/2024, the first meeting was held with the participation of the mediator. It is necessary to state that the employer showed a will to continue negotiations and there were some minor points of contention even closed. These were primarily procedural or financially undemanding items of the collective agreement (CA). In priority points such as compensating for inflation, guaranteeing regular wage increases, etc however, there were no other items that directly increased financial costs for employees presented as acceptable offers from the employer.
The employees' representatives even offered a series of compromise solutions, on which we are waiting for a statement during the next rounds of collective bargaining. We will keep you informed of further progress or details inform soon. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
January 15. 2024
Current inflation vs. wages.
The average inflation in 2022 reached the level of 12.8%. The employer partially compensated for this during 2023. However, most employees suffered a loss in real wages.
Despite the reduction of inflation in the course of 2023, its annual average reached the level of 10.5%. This means that towards the end of the year our loss will increase by this percentage.
The employer was repeatedly asked for an additional payment of wages during the year 2023. However, these requests were rejected.
At the moment, the employer is already aware that in the last two years alone, Slovak employees lost an average of 16.9% of the value of their real wages. So it is questionable how he will approach it.
2023
December 7. 2023
Collective agreement negotiation has stopped for now!
As we already announced during 2023, the current collective agreement (CA) is valid until the end of 1Q'24. We sent the draft of the new collective agreement to the employer on 31/05/2023. From this moment on, our main priority was to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.
The employer began the actual negotiations during August - December 2023. However, these were unsuccessful. 07/12/2023 the employer confirmed that he is not willing to commit to any form of inflation compensation in the future, guarantee annual wage increases, or otherwise increase employee costs.
The employer did offer a slight increase in benefits, but if we only add up the losses due to inflation over the last two years, this is really meager compensation.
The representatives of the UNITY Trade Union were therefore forced to declare a dispute over the conclusion of a collective agreement and request the intervention of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and the Family. The following negotiations should continue in the coming weeks.
We at UNITY believe that the employer can prove his interest in the employees and come up with an acceptable offer. We will continue to inform you about the progress. Follow our Facebook and LinkedIn profile.
October 26. 2023
A member meeting took place.
One of the main topics of today's membership meeting was the ongoing collective bargaining. Employee representatives, along with members, confirmed a list of priorities on which they will focus.
Yes, primarily it is about employee wages. The end of the year is approaching relentlessly, and our predictions regarding inflation are becoming increasingly realistic. The main question remains whether the employer will help to mitigate its impact on our wages?
October 19. 2023
Progress of collective agreement negotiation - UPDATE.
At today's meeting, we did not receive a response from the employer regarding the key points of the proposed new collective agreement.
Employer representatives expect these to be available by the end of November at the latest. This is the right moment for the employer to demonstrate their commitment to their employees, and we believe that they will choose to support us during these difficult times.
More information coming soon...
October 10. 2023
We are preparing a Linkedin profile.
As we believe that communication across social networks is really important, the labor union organization UNITY has decided to create a Linkedin profile.
In this network, we will communicate bilingually and, therefore, internationally.
More coming soon...
September 18. 2023
Current inflation vs. salary.
As we have announced in the past, the average inflation rate in 2022 reached 12.8%. From April 2023, our employer reduced our loss by 3.4%. If our employer increases our salary by another 3% from October 2023, our real salary loss for 2022 will be 6.4%.
Although inflation has decreased during the year 2023, its annual average is still expected to be around 10-11%. This means that our loss will increase by this percentage by the end of the year.
Considering this fact, we submitted a request with calculations and possible solutions to our employer in early September. Unfortunately, our employer rejected it in full with the justification that they do not plan to apply any further compensation during this year.
September 12. 2023
Collaboration between employee representatives in IT industry is becoming a reality.
As you may already know, employer representatives organize in the so-called Business Service Center Forum alliance. Here they share their practical experiences and advise on how to proceed with respect to applicable legislation.
Representatives of the UNITY Trade Union organization also cooperate with employee representatives operating either internally within Orange Business in foreign branches or externally in other IT companies in Slovakia.
More information coming soon...
August 15. 2023
Collective agreement negotiation has begun.
Despite the fact that we did not manage to go through the entire proposal for the new collective agreement today, we believe the meeting was productive.
There are still many key points that lack input from the headquarters, but we are making progress.
We will keep you informed about further developments.
Jully 7. 2023
The employer offered the first possible meeting regarding the collective agreement in August 2023.
As the employer needs more time to review the proposal for a new collective agreement, they offered a date for the first possible meeting on 08/15/2023.
July 3. 2023
Employer is not responding to the proposal of a new collective agreement.
According to the law on collective agreement negotiation, the employer must respond to the proposal for a collective agreement within 30 days of its delivery. The employer is expected to notify the trade union of the proposal points with which they disagree, offer a counter-proposal, or indicate the points they are willing to negotiate about.
At this time, we have not received any response, so we must state that the employer has not fulfilled their legal obligation. We will keep you informed of any further developments.
May 31. 2023
The proposal for a new collective agreement was delivered to the employer today.
The current valid collective agreement (CA) is valid until the end of 1Q'24. We have delivered a proposal for a new CA to the employer, who currently has 30 days defined by legislation to respond. In the proposal itself, we focused primarily on the priority areas that you defined in the survey.
This includes: compensation for inflation, regular increases in real salary, a shortened work week following in the footsteps of our colleagues in France, HO/flexibility work and others.
Negotiations themselves will take place in the coming months, and we at UNITY firmly believe in a successful agreement between both parties.
May 30. 2023
While inflation continues to stay in the double-digit range, our standard of living is decreasing!
In the payment for April, the first increase in wages of 3.4% to compensate for last year's inflation was reflected. We expect another increase in the October payment, traditionally compensating for another 3% of last year's inflation.
Cumulatively, the employer has planned a total compensation of 6.4%. We are certainly glad that the employer was able to provide at least this much help. However, considering that the average inflation for 2022 reached 12.8%, the mentioned compensation amounts to only half of the real wage that we have lost. It is now 2023, and the situation is not improving significantly. Based on data communicated by the Statistical Office, it appears that the average inflation will be in the double digits again.
We want to say that we really appreciate the help provided by the employer, but it is necessary to focus on further help. We believe that whether it's in the form of additional salary compensation or alternative solutions, it will be more than welcome.