INTRODUCTION

Bratislava Declaration is a public statement of support for activities aiming at:

•  greater adaptability of companies and employees
•  modernisation of work organisation
•  harmonization of work and family lives
•  involve disadvantaged groups of population into the labour market and
  
• prevent poverty and social exclusion.
  

Bratislava Declaration has been set up by partners institutions acting within EQUAL Community Initiative on March, 2007.

FULL TEXT

With respect to the significant changes that the employment markets and economies of European Union, and especially of the New Member States, have been experiencing due to the on-going process of globalisation, and in connection to the growing role of information technologies in our lives, work and businesses, it is – in our opinion – necessary to…

… seek new effective solutions which will lead to a greater adaptability of companies and employees to the new situations in the markets, and which let them align to the requirements related to the increasing competitiveness of people and organisations;

… support the modernisation of work organisation that can be seen as one of the most important factors influencing the future growth of employment and the increase of flexibility in the labour market;

… increase the importance of harmonization of work and family lives;

… stress the fact that both flexibility and work-life balance help to involve disadvantaged groups of population into the labour market, and thus to prevent poverty and social exclusion.

It is important to underline that:

… today’s economy requires constant changes from all market players – both companies (employers) and people (employees); static means uncompetitive; thus, it is necessary to be able to constantly adapt to the changing conditions of the employment market in a way and with speed which has not been usual until very recently;

… in order to stay competitive in markets that are parts of the Knowledge Based Economy and that become more and more globalised, enterprises have to adapt their organisation of work in order to address the greater role of efficient knowledge management and anytime availability of information and expertise;

… the role and significance of a knowledge worker, being able to work effectively independently of place (i.e. also while travelling and out of the office) becomes evident; their importance for companies, from the point of view of their retaining within the organisation, proves to be of key importance, as well;

… at the same time, these key employees find it more and more difficult to preserve a healthy balance between their work and family lives; this, in turn, might in future influence not only their personal situation, but also impact negatively the working environment, their co-employees, and – ultimately – also the employers themselves;

… it can be noticed that problems with reconciling family and professional lives lead to the strengthening of the current demographic trends (like ageing of the society, lower birth rate and late parenthood with all related health consequences);

… the collaboration among companies, especially these of small and medium size, both on inter-enterprise level and with respect to employees getting involved in ad-hoc networking for the purposes of a given undertaking, should be considered as one of the main drivers of the required business efficacy;

… the co-operation of different players of the whole employment market (coming from public, private and non-governmental sectors) has not been satisfactory and should be further strengthened and promoted, so as to properly address the market’s problems in an integrated way;

… the flow of information and exchange of good practices related to the issues in question among European regions have been low; it is crucial to stimulate actions aiming at greater communications among interested parties in order to allow making better use of lessons learnt and experiences gained and speeding up the learning and take-up processes in the less advanced regions.

Therefore, we do express our willingness to pursue all feasible actions to support initiatives aiming at:

• creation of favourable conditions for implementing new forms of work and business organisation (especially in relation to the employment flexibility in terms of the place and time of work, and to the greater importance of networking and community-based collaborative settings);
• increasing the general level of knowledge about possibilities of using new forms of work and business organisation, and supporting the intra-regional transfer and dissemination of related experiences and good practices;
• practical evaluation of the efficiency of using new forms of work and business organisation, and of their alignment to the specific situations of individual regions;
• increasing the active participation in the labour market of people with family and parental duties, and implementing the principles of equal opportunities and antidiscrimination for the disadvantaged groups;
• supporting the creation of multi-stakeholder partnerships (comprising of both public and private sectors) that practically address the needs of the employment market. 

As representatives of employers, employees, state institutions, public administration, and non-profit organisations, we express our willingness to actively undertake future co-operation and to pursue actions focused on achieving the aforementioned objectives.

Agreed on during the meetings in:

Warszawa, on March 29th, 2007

Bratislava, on May 18, 2007

Kuressaare, on May 31st, 2007

Budapest, on June 26th, 2007  

INITIATORS

	Partnership for Acceptance and Support of Technology-Accelerated flexible working
	Supporting gender equity and reintegration into the labour market
	Association for Regional Developement and Entrepreneurship

SUPPORT

Institutional:

• The Polish Ministry of Regional Developement  

Individual:

• prof. Witold Holubowicz
• prof. Krzysztof Zmijewski