Law on Labour Benefits Employers – Workers’ Councils in Contemporary Democracy

The Narodna Skupstina (People’s Parliament) of the Republic of Srpska adopted, on October 24, 2000, the Law on Labour (Official Journal of RS, No. 38, November 8, 2000). What attracted attention were the provisions on workers’ council in Articles 109-111. The Law provides that all employees with more than 15 full-time employees, the workers can establish their own council to represent themselves and protect their rights. The workers’ council provides opinions and proposals and submits them to the employer, but not on issues of importance to management of a company, but only on issues closely related to economic and social rights of workers, like annual leave, rules and procedures of work, professional training, etc. The Law is adamant (article 111, paragraph 2) that the role of the councils is to act as purely advisory bodies. Evidently, the workers’ councils are some sort of charity that the gentlemen from the Parliament, seating in the Skupstina Hall worth 3 million KM, decided to present to the workers as a gift. There is no other way to interpret those provisions, if we have in mind that they give the workers with very few and limited rights. First, they are limited by the very phrasing of the Law and the listed competences the councils shal have, and second, by the possibilities for real implementation of those legal provisions. The Law says that workers can establish workers’ councils. Naturally, this democratic right to decide themselves whether or not to establish a council would be justified if they could really implement it without pressure from the employers. The owners, indeed, know that councils don’t interfere with his property and ownership of the enterprise, but also know that workers are totally disorganized (in almost all private enterprises), or have an organization (a trade union) more or less restricted to its existence on paper (state-owned enterprises). Therefore, an owner is prepared to use any pressure or blackmail to prevent that a council is established. Since the Law doesn’t obligate him or her to existence of a council in his or her company, while workers’ organizations usually can’t support the workers for internal weaknesses, it is easy for employers to manipulate the workers and avoid a situation where they would interfere in the companies activities, even on symbolic level. The Law does provide for an opportunity to establish councils in companies with more than 15 full-time employees. There is no mention, whatsoever, of the rights of the workers employed in companies with less than 15 employees, and there is great number of such enterprises. Why, say, all of them wouldn’t create a workers’ council? Also, and very important, the private owners today don’t register a significant number of people they employ. In the Republic of Srpska, for example, 30,000 private companies has registered less than 15,000 employees and the authorities never reacted. Therefore, since both medium and big private companies are not forced to register their employees, or do it to the least possible extent, there is a real possibility that workers’ councils are not established even in places with more than 15 employees. The weakest point of this legal solution lies in the competences given to the councils. They can submit proposals and opinions, but can’t decide on anything. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that the interest for the councils will soon expire, since the workers will soon realize that their strength has not been significantly increased by the introduction of those councils. It seems totally unjustified that the people who create the wealth of a company are swindled, their rights taken away in such a refined and ruthless manner. At this moment, it is not possible to introduce self-management in enterprises. Nevertheless, it remains our goal, for the past 12 years’ practice has convinced us that workers lose their rights, dignity and ability to create their own future without the decision-making powers. Until the conditions are created to introduce self-management bodies in all companies, we believe it is necessary for the workers to gradually, step by step, fight for increased rights. We don’t think that existence of advisory bodies is justified. Rather, we would like to see workers participate in management bodies and boards, where important decisions for the company are made. What will be their percentage in the boards doesn’t depend on political party programmes, but on the strength and level of organization of the workers. Therefore, the workers should not be satisfied with those workers’ councils, but they should establish them anyway, until the conditions are created for the emergence of something better, more influential and fair. Through the workers’ councils, they can learn the skill of analyses of operations, submitting propositions and fight that they are accepted. That will certainly come of use later, when they make it into the managing boards or establish true workers’ councils.