A new bill on Collective Labour Agreements has been released for public consultation by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Public consultation will remain open until January 28, allowing stakeholders to submit comments that will help shape the final text. The draft legislation contains 16 articles and reflects the provisions of the recently signed National Social Agreement between the government and national social partners.
The government aims to modernize and strengthen the framework of collective bargaining through a series of key reforms. A central change concerns the extension of Collective Labour Agreements, with the required coverage threshold dropping from 50 percent to 40 percent. An automatic extension mechanism will apply when agreements are signed by national social partners, removing the need to assess the numeric threshold. The bill also enables GSEE to co sign or conclude sectoral agreements under specific conditions, ensuring broader application of the new extension rules.
Additional measures clarify the scope of sectoral agreements by requiring reference to activity codes and other defining elements. Functional registries for labour organizations will be used to determine coverage levels, while registration requirements are simplified to essential information only. The consequences of non registration are revised so they no longer restrict rights tied to union activity, and registration becomes relevant solely for agreement extension and referrals to OMED. Electoral documents will now be filed with the Court of First Instance instead of the registries.
Worker protection remains a core focus of the proposed changes. All terms of a Collective Labour Agreement will continue to apply after its expiry. A three month extension period will be formally established, after which full post expiration validity will remain in place until a new collective or individual agreement is concluded. The bill abolishes the partial post expiration regime introduced in 2012 and restores the full pre crisis framework. Newly hired employees within the three month period will be covered by the same terms as existing workers.
Dispute resolution procedures between employees and employers are set to accelerate under the new system. A preliminary review mechanism will apply to unilateral mediation or arbitration requests. A three member committee under OMED will assess only the legal prerequisites for unilateral referral. Its members will include a professor of labour law, a professor of economics, and a retired judge from a supreme court, all appointed by the OMED board. The second level of arbitration will be abolished to shorten resolution times, while judicial appeals against arbitration decisions will remain possible.
The National Social Agreement marks the beginning of a new era for Collective Labour Agreements. This agreement leads to more and more easily extendable collective arrangements, through which employees will benefit from higher wages and better working conditions with stronger protection. Businesses will gain greater stability and the entire labour market will operate under clear rules. Its importance goes beyond labour relations. It concerns the functioning of our democracy. It proves that the state can act as a catalyst for consensus and as a guarantor of trust. Authentic dialogue can become a tool for development, stability and social cohesion.
