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Dialogue social

Le dialogue social inclut les négociations, les consultations, les actions conjointes, les discussions et le partage d’informations impliquant des employeurs et des travailleurs. Un dialogue social satisfaisant est un outil essentiel permettant de façonner les conditions de travail, et qui implique toute une série d’acteurs à divers niveaux. Il équilibre les intérêts des travailleurs et des employeurs, et contribue à la fois à la compétitivité économique et à la cohésion sociale.

Les débats politiques récents au niveau de l’UE ont, notamment depuis la crise de 2008, attiré l’attention sur l’émergence de nouveaux débats concernant la justice sociale, la démocratie, la qualité du travail, ainsi que de nouveaux modèles de relations du travail, débats qui remettent en cause les modes traditionnels de relations industrielles et de dialogue social.

Trente ans après l’instauration historique du dialogue social européen à Val Duchesse (Bruxelles), la Commission a relancé le processus d’un nouveau départ pour le dialogue social, lors d’une réunion de haut niveau réunissant le 5 mars 2015 les organisations de partenaires sociaux de toute l’Europe. Le dialogue social européen est un instrument de la politique sociale de l’UE, qui contribue directement à l’élaboration de la législation et des politiques de l’UE dans le domaine du travail.

Topic

Recent updates

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From January to June 2022, Eurofound supported the work of France's presidency of the Council of the EU, providing valuable research results on specific topics linked with the presidency priorities.

Web page
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From July to December 2023, Eurofound supported the work of Spain's presidency of the Council of the EU, providing valuable research results on specific topics linked with the presidency priorities.

Web page

EU context

Le travail d’Eurofound

Les décideurs politiques ont besoin d’éléments solides pour comprendre les changements survenant sur le lieu de travail et répondre à la dynamique changeante des relations industrielles en Europe. Eurofound utilise les données et les analyses tirées de son réseau de correspondants dans les 28 États membres de l’UE et en Norvège pour cartographier les tendances et les modèles et attirer l’attention sur les exemples de dialogue social satisfaisant, à la fois à l’échelle européenne et à l’échelle nationale.

Les recherches d’Eurofound portent sur des aspects tels que la participation des travailleurs, les conventions collectives, la représentation des salariés et les relations industrielles à tous les niveaux. Elles examinent dans quelle mesure les relations industrielles se sont adaptées à l’émergence des organisations multinationales. Elles adoptent également une perspective mondiale en comparant les systèmes de relations industrielles et leurs résultats dans des économies extérieures à l’UE, telles que les États-Unis et le Japon.

Principales contributions

Eurofound a réalisé depuis plus de quarante ans un vaste ensemble de travaux qui ont dressé l’inventaire des facettes changeantes et multiples du dialogue social en Europe, et ce à différents niveaux: l’entreprise, le pays, l’Europe et le monde.

Durant ces dernières années, Eurofound a effectué des analyses approfondies de diverses questions situées au cœur du dialogue social, telles que: 

Les études sur la représentativité menées par Eurofound dans de multiples secteurs à la suite d’un mandat reçu de la Commission en 2006 fournissent les informations de base nécessaires à la création et au fonctionnement des comités européens de dialogue social sectoriel.

Ressources

Conçu en 2005 en tant qu’outil de référence en ligne pour les décideurs et les praticiens, le dictionnaire des relations industrielles européennes est une réserve précieuse d’informations sur les relations du travail et les relations industrielles dans l’UE. Les profils nationaux sur la vie professionnelle fournissent des informations contextuelles pertinentes sur les structures, les institutions et les réglementations sous-tendant la vie active dans les États membres de l’EU à 28 et en Norvège, ainsi qu’à l’échelle de l’Union européenne.

Les bases de données sur les négociations salariales collectives et sur les rémunérations, le temps de travail et les conflits collectifs visent à fournir aux chercheurs et aux décideurs des informations quantitatives et qualitatives sur ces sujets dans tous les États membres de l’UE et en Norvège, de l’an 2000 jusqu’à l’heure actuelle.

Key outputs

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Ces dernières années, hormis quelques pics occasionnels, il a été constaté une baisse générale des actions syndicales dans tous les États membres de l’Union. Pendant la pandémie de Covid-19, cette...

7 février 2022
Publication
Research report
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This publication consists of individual country reports on working life during 2020 for 29 countries – the 27 EU Member States, Norway and the United Kingdom. The country reports summarise...

23 mars 2021
Publication
Other
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Dans le cadre de son mandat visant à favoriser le dialogue entre les employeurs et les travailleurs, Eurofound surveille et analyse l’évolution des systèmes de relations industrielles à l’échelle de...

11 décembre 2020
Publication
Flagship report

Current and ongoing research

 

In the course of the programming period 2021–2024, Eurofound will continue regular monitoring of social dialogue, including through the EU PolicyWatch database.

Other topics addressed include:

  • Monitoring of the role of national social partners in the European semester and analysis of quality and effectiveness of their involvement 
  • Summary of discussions on capacity-building social dialogue to support a meaningful and effective social dialogue 
  • Research on industrial relations covering topics related to both social dialogue and working life developments, including updates on collectively agreed pay
  • Representativeness studies on a variety of sectors to provide the European Commission required information to assess the representativeness of European sectoral social partner organisations.

 

Eurofound expert(s)

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Ricardo Rodriguez Contreras is a research manager in the Working Life unit at Eurofound and focuses on comparative industrial relations, social dialogue and collective bargaining...

Research manager,
Working life research unit
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Mária Sedláková is a research officer in the Working Life unit at Eurofound. She is responsible for drafting overview reports for sectoral representativeness studies, management...

Research officer,
Working life research unit
Publications results (251)

This report examines the operations of social partner organisations and collective bargaining in the post and courier services sector. Outlining first the economic background of the sector, the study goes on to analyse the social partner organisations in all Member States of the European Union, with

15 July 2008

This report examines the operations of the social partner organisations and collective bargaining in the gas sector. The first part outlines the general economic background. The next part analyses the social partner organisations in the Member States of the European Union, with the exception of

04 February 2008

This report examines the operations of social partner organisations and collective bargaining in the agricultural sector. The first part of the report provides an overview of the agricultural sector’s economic background. The second part analyses the social partner organisations in the Member States

01 October 2007

The project on Social Dialogue Capacity Building at sectoral and company levels is a follow-up of a similar project held at a national level in 2005. The methodology used included carrying out interviews with members of the nationally recognised representative organisations of employers and

30 July 2007

The project on Social Dialogue Capacity Building at sectoral and company levels is a follow-up of a similar project held at a national level in 2005. The methodology used included carrying out interviews with members of the nationally recognised representative organisations of employers and

25 July 2007

The project on Social Dialogue Capacity Building at sectoral and company levels is a follow-up of a similar project held at a national level in 2005. The methodology used included carrying out interviews with members of the nationally recognised representative organisations of employers and

25 July 2007

The project on Social Dialogue Capacity Building at sectoral and company levels is a follow-up of a similar project held at a national level in 2005. The methodology used included carrying out interviews with members of the nationally recognised representative organisations of employers and

25 July 2007

The Spanish fishing fleet is the biggest in the EU, serving the very strong domestic market for seafood. However, the fishing industry does not contribute greatly to Spain’s GDP – around 0.5%. This, however, is more a reflection of the recent rapid growth of the Spanish economy as a whole than of

09 July 2007

In France, the fisheries sector is supported by the state for its important place in the economy of certain coastal areas, particularly Brittany - which has both industrial and artisanal fleets, but also the Mediterranean coast, mainly artisanal. Fishing is a sector that can create employment

09 July 2007

The project on Social Dialogue Capacity Building at sectoral and company levels is a follow-up of a similar project held at a national level in 2005. The methodology used included carrying out interviews with members of the nationally recognised representative organisations of employers and

01 July 2007

Online resources results (435)

Spain: Milestone agreement in retail sector

An agreement between social partners in the Spanish retail sector will govern working and employment conditions for the next three years. About 260,000 employees are expected to benefit from this agreement, which is likely to set the standards for other sector agreements due to be negotiated during

France: Occupational personal accounts take effect

Occupational personal accounts, one of the flagship measures of France’s labour market reforms, took effect on 1 January 2017. The aim is to enable people to acquire entitlements to training without fear of losing them if they change employer.

EU level: Latest working life developments – Q1 2017

Issues related to the European Commission’s proposal on the European Pillar of Social Rights, as well as some developments in social dialogue at EU level, are the main topics of interest in this article. This update reports on the latest developments in working life at EU level in the first quarter

Slovenia: Latest working life developments – Q1 2017

The unions’ rejection of pension reform proposals, employers' demands for the withdrawal of a mini labour reform and the launch of the unions’ fair pay campaign are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments in working life in Slovenia in the

Spain: Latest working life developments – Q1 2017

The inability of the national social partners to agree salary recommendations; digital disconnection after working hours; and the effects of the increase in the minimum wage on employment are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments in

Bulgaria: Latest working life developments – Q1 2017

Rising wages following an increase in the minimum statutory wage, a victory for the centre-right party GERB in the March elections and predictions of a rise in employment in tourism are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments in working

Lithuania: Latest working life developments – Q1 2017

Controversial provisions in the Labour Code; four new members for Lithuania’s Tripartite Council; and initiatives by the main employer organisation, the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists, are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments

Finland: Latest working life developments – Q1 2017

The effects of the decision by the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK to terminate most peak-level agreements with trade unions and a setback for employment policy reforms are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments in working life in

France: Latest working life developments – Q1 2017

Preparations for the presidential election and a revival of national social dialogue with the signing of a new collective agreement on the unemployment insurance scheme are the main topics of interest in this article. This country update reports on the latest developments in working life in France

Latvia: Social security implications of favourable tax rate for small businesses

The social partners reacted differently to the government's plans to increase the rate of the special tax for microenterprises, the unions concerned over the lower social protection afforded the workers and employers worried about losing competitiveness due to increased labour costs. In the end, the


Blogs results (6)

The COVID-19 pandemic made us acutely aware of how dependent our society is on certain essential workers. We felt deep gratitude towards workers in healthcare especially, because they worked ceaselessly in often-difficult conditions.

22 novembre 2023
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Decision-makers approached minimum wage setting for 2021 cautiously due to the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Despite this, nominal statutory minimum wages rose in most Member States and the UK, although at lower rates than in recent years.

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In the context of the ongoing trend of a fall in collective bargaining coverage, and recent calls at EU level to promote collective bargaining coverage as an instrument to support fair and decent wages, new data from Eurofound’s fourth European Company Survey (ECS) show that two-thirds of workers (i

28 octobre 2020
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The workings of industrial relations are constantly evolving. In this blog piece, Eurofound authors Christian Welz and Ricardo Rodriguez Contreras discuss a tool that Eurofound has developed to enable this process of change to be monitored and analysed, enabling stakeholders in Member States to asse

28 mars 2018
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Europe has gone through significant economic change over the past decade. Businesses have had to manage the challenges posed by the financial crisis, globalisation and a rapidly changing labour market. Eurofound's new report Win-win arrangements: Innovative measures through social dialogue at compan

3 octobre 2016
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The new European Commission (EC) under President Jean-Claude Juncker is committed to re-launching social dialogue and a first step was taken with the organisation of a high-level conference in Brussels on 5 March. The aim of the conference was to discuss concrete ways to strengthen social dialogue w

20 avril 2015
Upcoming publications results (7)

This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the graphical industry. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participation

July 2025

This report reviews the quality of the national social partners’ involvement in the implementation of the reforms and investments shaping the digital and green transition in the context of national policymaking. These reforms and investments stem mainly from the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

March 2025

This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the extractive industries sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective par

December 2024

This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the construction sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participatio

December 2024

This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the chemical sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participation in

December 2024

This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the road transport sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participat

December 2024

This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the postal and courier activities sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effec

November 2024

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