Labour Standards and Working Environment in the New Member States: European Convergence or Divergence?

1

Employee 'voice' and working environment in
post-communist New Member States An empirical
analysis of Estonia, Latvia and
Lithuania Charles Woolfson, Dace Calite and Epp
Kallaste

2
'Employee 'voice' and working environment in
post-communist New Member States An empirical
analysis of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania'

• Charles Woolfson, Dace Calite and Epp Kallaste
• International seminar on
• Worker Representation and Workplace Health
  Safety
• Cardiff Work Environment Research Centre
• 10th October 2007

3
1.7 million
2.4 million
3,4 million
4
Main themes

• Baltic Working Environment and Labour (BWEL)
  survey of 800 employers and 1200 employees
  conducted in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, in
  the second half of 2006 and early 2007.
• A first estimate of the current state of the
  working environment, social dialogue and labour
  standards following accession to the EU,
  focussing on the issue of workforce
  representation and participation in health and
  safety.
• Implications for workforce voice in health and
  safety are explored in terms of broader issues of
  convergence and divergence of post-communist
  states within a wider European framework.

5
Perception that health and safety is at risk
because of work (European Foundation 2005 survey)
6
European Foundation Fourth Working Conditions
Survey, (2005)

• With regard to the Baltic States, European
  Foundation data reveal 49.1 Latvian, 43.4
  Lithuanian and 39.4 Estonian respondents
  claiming their health and safety at risk because
  of their work.

7
Work intensification
8
Work intensification

• A total of 55.1 of respondents in Latvia, 53.9
  in Estonia and 52.7 in Lithuania reported that
  their work intensity/working pace had increased
  considerably or slightly in the previous
  twelve months

9
Working at high speed and to tight deadlines
10
Working at very high speed and to tight deadlines

• working at very high speed about half the time
  or all of the time. Two thirds (66.0) of
  Latvian respondents, and around three-quarters of
  Lithuanian (71.2) and Estonian (77.1)
  respondents reported affirmatively.
• working to tight deadlines half the time or
  all of the time, four out of five Latvian (81)
  and Estonian (82.1) and nearly two-thirds of
  Lithuanian respondents (62.3) agreed.

11
Working physical effort
12
Working physical effort

• While physical intensity of work is still
  increasing especially in Lithuania, it is
  possibly doing so at a slower rate than in
  previous years, indicating that some kind of
  physical effort ceiling has been reached.
• Respondents reported that physical effort had
  considerably or somewhat increased as
  follows Latvia 29 Estonia 21 Lithuania 31

13
Working mental effort
14
Working mental effort

• When asked to say if working mental effort had
  considerably or somewhat increased, a larger
  proportion of BWEL survey respondents reported
  intensification of effort in the previous year
  Latvia 46 Estonia 43 Lithuania 33.
• High levels of reported stress in the three
  Baltic States is comparable with data from the
  European Working Conditions Survey (stress
  factors particularly acutely present in the
  Baltics).
• Negative impacts on employees health resulting
  from stress are reported at more than 10
  percentage points higher in the Baltic States
  (Latvia 36.9 Lithuania 31 and Estonia 32.4)
  as against the EU average (22.3).

15
Legislative compliance with the acquis but uneven
implementation

• Health and safety committees mainly in the larger
  enterprises (more than 50 employees).
• Employers resistance to any form of worker
  representation especially in new private sector
• Trade unions opposed to development of forms of
  non-union workforce representation but have few
  resources to develop in this area

16
Employer view of extent of OHS representation
17
Employee view of extent of OHS representation
18
OHS representation in workplace
19
Practical irrelevance of voice in OHS
20
Underlying consensualism in OHS
21
Employer resistance to workforce participation on
OHS
22
Trade unionisation in the Baltic States

• Latvia 15 of workforce (EIRO report. 2005)
• Lithuania 10 of the workforce (EIRO report,
  2005)
• Estonia 9 of the workforce (LFS, 2006)

23
Workforce attitudes to trade unions

• Trade unions are a necessary protection for
  employees against employers. Latvia 51.4,
  Lithuania 42.1 and Estonia 42.9 respondents
  completely or rather agreed
• Trade unions are a threat to successful
  business. Estonia (10.1), Latvia (9.1),
  Lithuania (5.7) supported this view
• Trade unions are too weak to be of much help to
  workers. Latvia 44.2, Estonia 42.7 and
  Lithuania 44.6 respondents completely or
  rather agreed.
• Trade unions should have the right to
  participate more in decision making in the
  plant. Latvia 56.5, Estonian 49.3, Lithuania
  46.3 respondents completely or rather
  agreed.

24
Source Baltic Working Environment and Labour
(BWEL) Survey, 2007.
25
Workforce ambivalence

• This realistic perception of current low level
  of trade union capacities hence workforces
  ambivalent evaluation of trade unions
• As significant as ongoing contamination effect
  arising from union role in the previous social
  system
• This realistic perception predisposes workers
  to seek an individualistic rather than
  collectivist response to wage and conditions
  bargaining issues at workplace level.

26
Individualism in wage bargaining
27
Less individualism on OHS
28
EU policy on workforce involvement in health and
safety

• Cornerstone of the European Unions previous
  occupational health and safety strategy
  (2002-2006) has been the attempt to promote a
  culture of risk prevention in the workplace.
• strengthening social dialogue at all levels,
  particularly in firms
• Successful OHS integration - one of the key
  challenges of enlargement

29
New Community Strategy 2007-2012

• Claims success for previous strategy in
  significant reduction in workplace fatalities
  2002-2006 but no objective assessment offered
• New Strategy seeks 25 reduction in injuries and
  illness across member States by 2012
• No mention of New Member States and their
  (qualitatively?) poorer working environment
• No mention of social dialogue as pathway to
  improvement
• Dominated by neo-liberal Lisbon agenda concerns
  of competitiveness and growth (legislative
  simplification, easing of burdens etc)

30
Main findings

• Our study suggests-
• a comparatively poor working environment exists
  in Baltic NMS
• Ineffective implementation of EU health and
  safety consultation requirements
• Underlying but unrealised consensualism on OHS
• Lack of employee voice in the workplace health
  and safety management, due to the absence of
  social dialogue in the workplace in Baltic NMS
• new EU strategy for occupational health and
  safety for 2007-2012 takes no account either of
  the deteriorated working environment in the NMS
  or the need to strengthen social dialogue