The most common activities of Social Dialogue

What are the different forms of Social Dialogue?

Social dialogue takes many different forms. It may exist as a tripartite process with the government as the official party to the dialogue, or it may consist of bipartite relations only between workers and employers (or trade unions and employers’ organisations), with or without indirect government involvement. It may take place at national, regional or local level. Social dialogue institutions are often defined by their composition. They can be bipartite or tripartite. The tripartite actors are the representatives of governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations.

What is the role of social partners in strengthening Social Dialogue?

Workers

Workers and their organisations play an important role in social dialogue. Social dialogue is a valuable means of protecting and promoting workers’ interests by extending democracy and human dignity to the workplace. Through social dialogue and collective bargaining, workers and their organisations improve their working conditions and wages. In many cases, they have succeeded in extending the scope of collective bargaining to include worker protection issues such as occupational health and safety and social security systems, worker education and training, and even worker participation in management.

Employers

They express the needs of enterprises. Employers’ organisations help make businesses more successful by influencing the environment in which they operate and by providing services that improve individual business performance.

Governments

Employment services have two main roles to play in social dialogue:

• The promoter – They propose the creation of specific procedures… In a national context… At the initiative of the government… to ensure and promote the participation of the social partners.
• And the protagonists – The Labour Administration provides tools to promote dialogue between the social partners. The labour administration must participate as a partner in tripartism to encourage exchanges, promote discussion and even find support for its policies and actions.