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Current workplace relations in central and eastern European candidate countries are strongly influenced by the legacy of fragmented workers interests and at best undeveloped semi-autonomous forms of collective interest representation. In addition, most trade unions have been unable to develop adequate strategies to cope with the pressures of radical marketisation and to forge collective identities. In this environment the mechanical implementation of social dialogue institutions could trigger opposition from the trade unions, conflicts between unions and works councils in companies where autonomous trade unions exist, and even serious damage to the unions. The social dialogue institutions will only have the desired effects in CEE companies if they are developed on the basis of trade unions that have been strengthened, or even, in the case of non-unionised companies, created. This article draws on empirical research into the operation of trade unions and works councils in the CEE countries, in particular Hungary and Slovenia.
