President Danilo Tuerk addressed the 27th Labour Day meeting near Mirna on Thursday, saying in his speech that workers contribute considerably to economic stability and company profits but are not always adequately awarded for doing so.
"Many people who look at their situation, wages, purchasing power, often realise that they are not getting all the results of increased profitability, competitiveness and rapid growth," Tuerk said.
The president stressed that good management, efficient work and good business results must also translate into better living conditions, more money and more pleasure for workers.
Tuerk said many reasons exist to question whether Slovenia was in reality a social state where every individual was given the chance to provide for him or herself through work and underlined that work remained the most important social value and should be respected.
According to Tuerk, the times in which Labour Day was created also set the foundations of the modern society. In those times the minimum human rights standards were developed, including the eight hour day, the right to rest and other rights of workers that were later written into the UN declaration on human rights.
Civil society organisations, including trade unions, were critically important for finding the way forward at the present Tuerk said. This is because while globalisation brought immense progress, it failed to distribute its fruits justly.
The meeting in Mirna was attended by some 4,000 to 5,000 people. It was organised by the ZSSS, Slovenia's largest trade union confederation.
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