Brief History

The Cyprus Workers Confederation-SEK, established in 1944, is one of the most important social partners in Cyprus within the framework of tripartite cooperation.
SEK represents through its affiliated unions, workers in all sectors of the country's economic activity. The mass of members comes from the private sector, but SEK also represents the majority of workers in semi-governmental utilities and services and local authorities, as well as blue-collar public employees.

The main aims of SEK are to protect and safeguard the workers' rights and interests through collective bargaining and to influence the appropriate bodies in forming labour and economic policies through social dialogue on national, sectoral and company level.
Moreover, SEK plays a leading role in facing and tackling the new challenges arising from the continuous introduction of new technology, globalisation and harmonization as a result of the accession of Cyprus to the European Union.

The fighting spirit of SEK and the responsible policies adopted, resulted in gaining the required respect both by the workers themselves, as well as by all the other social actors. It would not be an exaggeration to highlight the fact that the achievement of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960 and the small economic miracle achieved following the Turkish invasion and occupation of 38% of the island in 1974, bare the unfolding stamp of SEK.
Currently SEK is a well structured, equipped and well functioning trade union organization, promoting and protecting the rights and interests of the workers in a successful and effective way, being free and independent from any political influences and democratic in its way of functioning and decision taking policy.

Structure

SEK is the guiding body, policy maker and coordinator of the free trade unions of Cyprus, in regard to terms of employment, conditions of work, wages and salaries etc.
SEK has seven affiliated Trade Federations (Industrial Employees Federation, Construction Workers, Miners and Allied Trades Federation, Government, Military and Public Services Employees Federation, Transport, Petroleum and Agricultural Employees Federation, Private Employees Federation, Semi Governmental Employees Federation, Hotel and Catering Employees Federation), five labour centers (consisting of the local unions of each Federation in the district) and a number of specialized departments in supporting its activities and promoting its aims.

The highest decision and policy making body of SEK is the Pancyprian Congress held once every four years. Second in line is the General Council, the Executive Committee and lastly the Secretariat. The General Secretary of SEK is elected directly by the Congress delegates, the Federation General Secretaries are elected by each Federation's Congress, the District Secretaries by the Congress of each Labour Center and the same electoral procedure is followed for the election of the Secretaries and the Committees of local unions.

A constant and unchanged aim of the Cyprus Workers' Cofederation- SEK, is the continuous improvement of the workers' standard of living. Following a responsible and independent policy, away from any political or other obligations and aims, SEK since its establishment in 1944 is struggling for Freedom, Justice, Equality and Social Advancement.

Affiliations

SEK is a founder member of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), currently renamed to ITUC (following a merge with WCL) and an affiliated member to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) since 1981.
The active participation of SEK in these international/ European structures, provide the opportunity to promote the interests of all workers employed in Cyprus in a more direct, positive and effective way.

 Royal Holloway and Bedford New College

www.royalholloway.ac.uk

Fondazione Guiseppe di Vittorio (FDV)

Fondazione Di Vittorio (FDV) was established in 2001 with the aim of promoting the knowledge of the history of the Italy’s largest trade union CGIL and of the labour movement in Italy and worldwide. After a merging process, which incorporated in 2015, 4 former organisations (ABT, IRES-CGIL, ISF-CGIL, SMILE) promoted by CGIL, FDV is currently a single non-profit institute for historical, social, economic research and for trade union education and training supported by the Confederation. Subsequently, FDV takes over the long experience in the European projects’ management of the former organisations and is a member of a transnational level network focused on Industrial Relations, Social Dialogue, Collective bargaining, Information, consultation and participation of representatives of undertakings & EWCs. Thanks to an over 35 year-experience legacy, FDV also belongs to a consolidated transnational network of research and training organisations and academic centres.
The new FDV has three main areas of activity: History and Memory; Research; Training. There are also some thematic observatories. The History and Memory Area mostly focuses on the study of the history of CGIL, the working class and labour movement in Italy and other countries. The Research Area deals with the following thematic sectors: energy, development and innovation, economics, employment and labour market, working conditions, industrial relations, welfare, territorial development and sustainability. The Training Area focuses on the fields of trade union higher-level education, and the training of specialists and trainers.
 FDV is a full member of the TURI-ETUI network.

www.fondazionedivittorio.it

Szkola Glowna Handlowa w Warszawie, SGH

www.sgh.waw.pl

Warsaw School of Economics (SGH, Polish: Szkoła Główna Handlowa w Warszawie) is the leading business school in Eastern and Central Europe. It is the oldest university of economics in Poland. Having been established in 1906 its mission is educating economists and business leaders serving the nation, country and the region.

SGH conducts research in various areas of economics, finance, management and business administration as well as in public policy and political science within its 5 collegia:

- Collegium of World Economy;
- Collegium of Economic Analysis;
- Collegium of Socio-Economic Policy;
- Collegium of Business Administration;
- Collegium of Management and Finance.

 Students at SGH

Currently SGH offers Bachelor of Arts degree in 9 majors, one of which is European Studies. Masters of Arts is offered in 13 majors including studies in English and European Studies as well.
Each year about 2500 students start their studies at SGH. Each year at least one third of 15.000 students obtain their diploma in European topics including PhD students. 1400 students are studying at the doctoral level and over 5000 are completing other postgraduate courses.
The School has also a growing number of Foreign students coming under the Erasmus programme as well as other programmes. SGH students represent almost 60 countries.
At SGH there is also the possibility to enhance the Professional qualifications by completing postdiploma studies including European Studies.

Research Projects at SGH

The Warsaw School of Economics is a university with over 700 members of research staff specialising in different disciplines of social science, such as macro- and microeconomics, economics of innovation and competitiveness, international economics, business management, economics of transition and structural change, industrial economics and developmental studies, economic and social policy, including R&D policy.
SGH has been deeply engaged in different types of projects. It has carried out 67 fundamental research projects financed by National Science Centre (2011-2015); 27 projects financed from Structural Funds. SGH has been involved in carrying out 6th and 7th Framework Programme grants (eight grants within each of the Programme), and is involved in three Horizon 2020 projects.
Research is often carried out as part of international projects. Each year SGH organizes over 40 local & international seminars and conferences on different current economic and social topics including those connected with Poland’s membership in the EU and Integration process hosting a wide range of famous officials and academics from all over the world. SGH supports its academics in their research and academic works as they can use different appliances to conduct their activities.

Alumni of SGH

SGH is very proud of its alumni who have been holding key position in politics, public institutions, business and many other fields. SGH staff advises Polish policy-makers in government, non-governmental organizations and business.

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Table 1. List the projects for which SGH has received financial support from the EU programme.

Institute for the Development of Employee Advancement (IDEAS)

www.ideasinstitute.ie

Introduction to IDEAS

IDEAS is an independent corporate body established by SIPTU that operates in the commercial training and development sector.  The role and function of IDEAS Institute and how IDEAS can assist in company and organisational level initiatives is outlined hereunder.

What is the IDEAS INSTITUTE

IDEAS is an independent trust and not-for-profit commercial company that provides the following services to employees and their organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors of the economy.

• Certified training and development programmes for employees and their companies
• Change facilitation and support for employees and their companies
• Developmental interventions to assist changes in work organisation
• Individual personal development training programmes
• Project management services for change projects
• Research into the advancement of employees’ education and training
• Other specialist services including media skills and communications training

Employee Training and Development

IDEAS provides commercial and certified training and development courses and programmes for employees and their companies.  The range of training programmes that IDEAS provides includes health and safety training (including the Construction Industry ‘SafePass’ programme), computer training, teamwork training.

Facilitation for companies and their Employees

IDEAS provides independent facilitation and works with unions and companies to enable them to succeed in jointly identifying challenges and opportunities facing their particular organisation and developing their responses to successfully meet these challenges and achieve win-win outcomes.

IDEAS works closely with SIPTU Ireland’s largest Trade Union, specifically to review their structures and operations.

Developmental Interventions to Assist Changes in Work Organisation

IDEAS provides developmental interventions including surveys, workshops and diagnostic audits of organisations to establish their current position with regard to organisational change.  The organisations current position can then be compared with its planned change objectives and with the support of IDEAS’s trainers and facilitators, the organisation can commerce training to contribute to the achievement of its jointly agreed change objectives.

Project

IDEAS was actively involved in the ANEET project (Apprenticeship for Not in Education, Employment or Training) Specifically, the project aims to create a consortium of business partners and training structures to support young people, who have left school, back into learning.  The objective is to create new partnership synergies between these different worlds in three sectors: hospitality, metallurgy and new technologies.

Please follow this link for further information about the project http://www.aneets.eu/index.php/page/2/