During the meeting the participants discussed the national legislation that was covering the area of labour disputes resolution and protest actions, generally recognizing deficiencies and limitations for practical realization of collective bargaining and industrial actions as the means to enhance workers’ bargaining positions.

Nadine Thevenet from ITUC HTUR department made a presentation on nature of industrial conflicts and its relation to collective bargaining and different models of dispute resolutions and and types of industrial actions.

Alan Pelze from the ILO presented the international labour standards which cover the industrial disputes and the right to strike.

The national practices of industrial actions were shared. While in general the industrial actions are quite rare and conflicts are resolved through negotiations, the spontaneous conflicts are quite possible which go outside the existing legal frame, particularly when there is no union at enterprise. The conciliation procedures are lengthy and cumbersome and difficult to follow.

Several specific examples were mentioned: in Ukraine the existence of a special state agency for labour conflicts reconciliation is often used by unions to resolve the dispute without industrial actions, in Georgia, the industrial actions are quite easy to organise, however, in case of Kutaisi steel plant, the police was used to force strikers to work; in Russia national legislation was amended recently that simplifies the procedures; in Moldova a special law on labour courts is now being discussed by the working group.