Slovenia: Is the weakening of industrial relations taking its toll on social convergence?

Once considered an exception among the post-socialist countries owing to its inclusive industrial relations system and the role of social dialogue, the conditions for the social compromise in Slovenia have eroded significantly since mid-2000s. The pressures intensified in the post-2008 period when social dialogue at the national level virtually collapsed, the gap in working conditions and wages between sectors of the economy widened, while precarisation and increased unemployment seriously undermined the position of trade unions at the company level. In cases when collective bargaining was not mere ‘concession bargaining’ it often resulted in reduction of various forms of inequality but, with regard to weaker unions and non-unionised segments of the labour force, union actions at the national level proved crucial for imposing certain minimum standards. On the rare occurrences when meaningful social dialogue at the national level did take place, the results were more pronounced on the flexibility rather than the security side.