The IFIs and Labour Reform in Post Communist Economies

Since 1999 the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have sought to revise their policy approach to encourage participation, facilitation and dialogue with civil society organisations and trade unions. This Post Washington Consensus has been applied in transformation economies, where the IFIs have established labour market reform as a precondition for loans and grants. Such labour reforms have been deleterious to the interests of collective labour, and a continued source of contestation between unions, government, and the IFIs. This paper examines the reality of the new consensus framework with particular reference to the former Yugoslavia. Evidence is drawn from documents of the IFIs and from interviews with representatives of key union federations in the region. The article assesses the evidence against alternative theoretical frameworks from within political economy and international relations, and concludes that consensus is illusory, leaving unions consulted but then ignored.