INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN NORTH MACEDONIA 30 YEAR AFTER THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL

KEY CHALLENGES FACED BY INDUSTRIAL ACTORS

Abstract

The social, political and economic changes which emerged after the fall of the Berlin Wall didn’t
leave the industrial relations in the Central and Eastern European countries intact. Industrial
actors in these countries were faced with serious challenges imposed by the "new era" of political
pluralism and market economy. The unions lost a significant number of their members and
gradually began to lose their social power. The restructured employers that managed to "survive"
the transformation of the economy, as well as the newly established employers, were primarily
focused on surviving in a market economy and a new business environment. The state as a
regulator, focused its policies (in most cases very unsuccessfully) on balancing the interests of
workers for mitigation of the negative consequences of the transformation on their working and
living standards with the interests of employers for speed and economically as much painless as
possible restructuring of the economy.
The development of industrial relations and the problems faced by industrial actors, i.e. the
social partners in North Macedonia have not shown any particular differences compared to the
"template" of industrial relations in the other post-communist and socialist countries of Central
and Eastern Europe. However, in many segments, industrial relations in North Macedonia lagged
behind the other countries mentioned. Compared to other CEE countries, North Macedonia
established an appropriate legal framework for the functioning of the tripartite social dialogue
much later (effectively in 2010). The regulatory framework of the bipartite social dialogue was created earlier (the foundations of collective bargaining were laid down in the 1993 Law on
Labour Relations and were subsequently broadened and reregulated with the 2005 Law on
Labour Relations), but still, the most substantial reforms concerning the issues of
representativeness of social partners and conditions of collective bargaining that have paved the
way for trade union pluralism were only reached in 2009.
The regulation of industrial relations in North Macedonia is at a constant pace. In this regard,
there are a number of issues and dilemmas faced by industrial actors, i.e. social partners such as:
how large is the personal scope of application of the rights to trade union association and
collective bargaining and which persons, i.e. workers may effectively enjoy these rights; how is
the issue of representation of workers regulated and who are the subjects entitled to act in the
capacity of workers’ “representatives”; what is meant by “legal personality of trade unions” and
which workers’ and employers’ associations may acquire the status of legal entities? The
relevance of these dilemmas arise from the current labour legislation, which instead of
addressing and resolving the issues, additionally complicates them. In any case, the “new” labour
legislation (which is expected to be drafted and enacted in the forthcoming period) will have to
address the aforementioned dilemmas, as well as many other dilemmas and challenges faced by
the industrial actors in the country.