The Silk Road of Social Partnership

Abstract

The article discusses the prospects and impediments of collective bargaining legislation’s harmonization of six participants (China, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, and Germany) in the railway project that has linked China and Europe and has become an integral part of the New Silk Road global initiative. To this effect, the authors have analyzed transnational companies’ experience in making collective contracts and have assessed the degree of the impact of international treaties on the aforementioned countries’ legislation in terms of their involvement in various international organizations’ activities and ratification of the most significant international acts. Based on a comparative analysis of a collective contract’s legislation, the authors have singled out some key features influencing transnational companies’ collective bargaining practices. The analysis revealed the norms and practices that impede and/or boost the extraterritorial application of transnational companies’ collective contracts. Since the countries are members of various international organizations, the international acts on freedom of collective bargaining made it possible to identify legal grounds for distinctions between the social partnership’s legal policies. A meticulous study of individual transnational companies’ collective bargaining agreements and practices enabled the authors to identify systemic links and the Transnational Companies’ (hereinafter – TNCs) practice of determinism due to international regulation and the laws of the country of origin. The research revealed the principal steps forward which should be taken to resolve the issues of extraterritorial application of TNCs’ collective agreements.