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Sedgwick: US Firms Welcome End to Collective Agreement Extension
Friday 17 September 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, September 17 (TASR) - American companies welcome the Labour Ministry's decision to stop the process of extending the validity of collective agreements to a whole industry, American Ambassador to Slovakia Theodore Sedgwick said during talks with Labour Minister Jozef Mihal (Freedom and Solidarity/SaS).
"On behalf of the U.S. Government, I'm thankful for changes that will curb corruption and make the labour market more flexible. I appreciate the fact that the comments of the American Trade Chamber were taken into consideration, as it objected to extending collective agreements to companies that didn't agree to a collective agreement of a higher level in the first place," said Sedgwick.
Sedgwick said that the U.S.A. will meet Slovaks who work abroad halfway. There is no social security agreement between the two countries, meaning that years spent working in the United States don't count when calculating Slovak pensions, with Americans living in Slovakia facing the same problem. "We're aware of this issue and determined to address it," said Sedgwick.
The U.S.A. will also support a joint project drawn up by the Labour Ministry and American companies active on the Slovak market that is designed to address the Roma issue. According to Labour Ministry State Secretary Lucia Nicholsonova (SaS), a project drawn up by U.S. Steel Kosice that has provided jobs to Roma people and supported the education of their children could serve as an example.
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