IR Notes

On 5 March, the European Commission and European social partners signed a “Pact for European Social Dialogue”. This is the third attempt to revive European social dialogue, and it may prove to be the last one, as long as the actors involved at cross-industry level carry on failing to deliver any concrete results. The first attempt was in 2016, when the Commission, the Dutch Presidency of the EU and European social partners adopted a quadripartite statement entitled “A new start for social dialogue” (see IR Notes 58). Subsequently, on 3 February 2021, European commissioner Nicolas Schmit published the report on strengthening EU social dialogue (see IR Notes 157), which agreed to most of the requests formulated by European social partners in a Joint statement published in December 2020. On 25 January 2023, the Commission renewed efforts to make progress by adopting, on the same day, a communication on strengthening social dialogue in the European Union and a recommendation to Member States on this subject (see IR Notes 201). Clearly this was not enough, and the Commission, together with European social partners, then adopted a Tripartite Declaration for a Thriving European Social Dialogue on 31 January 2024, marking the 40th anniversary of the Val Duchesse summit (see Val Duchesse), organised by the former Commission President Jacques Delors, who launched a process that led to the creation of European social dialogue (see IR Notes 223).
The atmosphere surrounding the recent signing of the new Pact for European Social Dialogue announced in this declaration might be described as one of indifference… for very good reasons. Firstly, its content is merely a repetition of previous texts (see “Cross-industry social dialogue” section below). And secondly, its appearance comes at a time when European social dialogue has reached a standstill: 
1/ The number of texts derived from European social dialogue has fallen from six during the period 1996-2006 (including two agreements converted into directives, on part-time work and fixed-term contracts), to two agreements since 2016: one on active ageing, which was fairly minimalist, and the other on digitalisation, which avoided imposing any standards at all on the world of work.
2/ In a forthcoming article (*), Christophe Degryse, a researcher at the European Trade Union Institute (see interview opposite), makes the point that cross-industry European social partners have failed to adhere to their multiannual work programme. The 2019-2021 programme did not deliver a single proposal on the topic of psychosocial risks at work. Worse still, in the 2022-2024 programme, they not only failed to negotiate a European framework agreement on telework and the right to disconnect, which was due to be subsequently implemented via a European directive, but also to complete three of the five other planned initiatives, including the preparation of a framework of action on environmental transition.
3/ European social partners possess a “super-power” – one that exists in no other democratic entity in the world: they can decide to negotiate agreements at the time when the Commission consults them on the merits of a European initiative, and they can then call on the Council and Parliament to adopt their agreement in the form of a European directive, published almost verbatim. They have been consulted several times since the start of the von der Leyen Commission’s first term – on proposals for a directive on minimum wages (2020), protecting platform workers (2021), revision of the European Works Councils directive (2023), regulating traineeships (2023) and on telework and the right to disconnect (2024). However, European social partners have failed to take the initiative and launch joint negotiations on any of these important subjects, with the exception of telework and the right to disconnect, before the employers’ delegation walked away from the negotiations just when the home straight was in sight, saying that some of their members were not in agreement with them.
It is no longer good enough to keep repeating the incantation to strengthen European social dialogue, if the actors engaged in it are not themselves convinced that – as the Draghi report points out – more effective social dialogue will be central in building the consensus needed to build sustainable competitiveness.
©Dati Bendo, European Union, 2025

(*) Piasna A. and Theodoropoulou S. (eds.) (2025) Benchmarking Working Europe 2025, Chapter 6, ETUI-ETUC.

Union of Skills : On 5 March, the European Commission published a communication on the Union of Skills designed to support the development of human capital within the EU, accompanied by a Basic Skills Action Plan and an Education Strategic Plan to improve skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) (see press release). The communication proposes a global approach ranging from “children at school to those reaching retirement”, to empower people across Europe with the skills they need to thrive. The five pillars developed by the communication are: strengthening basic skills; strengthening lifelong training; facilitating recruitment; attracting and retaining talent; and having strong governance. The Commission announces the setting up of a “skills guarantee pilot project” that will offer workers who are affected by restructuring processes or threatened with unemployment, the opportunity to pursue their career at another company or in another sector. “We’re going to test it, probably in the car industry”, said Roxana Mînzatu, Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness. In view of the obstacles associated with recognising diplomas within the EU, the Commission wants to embark on a skills portability initiative to facilitate EU-wide recognition and acceptance of skills and qualifications. This initiative will encourage the use of digital diplomas. The Commission also plans to establish the “European Skills Intelligence Observatory”, which will provide “data and foresight regarding skills and allow for early warning alerts regarding skills shortages in critical or strategic sectors”.
© Xavier Lejeune, European Union, 2025

EU industrial strategy : On 26 February, the European Commission published a communication on the Clean Industrial Deal: A joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation, which aims to boost companies’ competitiveness by helping to decarbonise the economy and cut energy costs, while at the same time protecting them from unfair competition. The text tackles the issues of skills and providing support for workers. The Commission says that it wants to provide “support to workers in transition”, and explains that it “will discuss with social partners a framework to support restructuring processes at EU and Member States level. The framework will be focused on just transition, on anticipation of change, quicker intervention when there is a threat of restructuring, and an improved information and consultation framework”. The Commission is therefore responding to a repeated demand from the European trade union movement and Parliament to strengthen oversight of restructurings. The organisation representing employers in the metal-working industries (CEEMET), who believe that “existing national and EU legislation already address collective redundancies and the restructuring process, making additional EU measures in this field unnecessary”, do not like this wording (see press release). The Commission also plans to provide better support for companies carrying out restructuring, by adapting the operating rules of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (see European Globalisation Adjustment Fund). The Commission plans to “see how [this fund] can contribute more”, given that it is heavily under-utilised. It also wants to improve “the delivery of the Just Transition Fund (JTF)” and to create “a European Fair Transition Observatory” (in 1st quarter 2026), which will ensure “a transparent dialogue with social partners, regional and local authorities, civil society and other stakeholders on just transition aspects”. Finally, the communication also discusses “the use of social conditionalities in public funding” to ensure “that workers benefit from the support provided to industry, including to promote collective bargaining”. And in the same spirit, the Commission explains that it wants to “support labour and social standards”, including in the context “of the Commission’s forthcoming evaluation of the legislative framework on public procurement”.
© Christophe Licoppe, European Union, 2025

Women’s Rights : On 8 March, the European Commission unveiled a Roadmap for Women’s Rights, together with, in annex, a Declaration of principles for a gender-equal society and the new Report on gender equality published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). The declaration is not prescriptive in nature but contains a number of recommendations regarding the world of work. It states that “projections show that improved gender equality could elevate the EU GDP per capita by 6.1 to 9.6% by 2050” and that “the cost of violence against women in the EU is estimated at €289 billion euros per year”.
© Christophe Licoppe, European Union, 2025

A pact to relaunch social dialogue : The Pact for European Social Dialogue recycles much of the content of the previous texts already concluded, in the form of a relaunch (see Lead story), without contributing anything new of significance (see joint press release). Thus it adopts the idea of appointing a “European Social Dialogue Envoy” at the Commission, and “social dialogue coordinators” within each Directorate General; and of establishing a mechanism to receive reports from the European social partners, in circumstances where the latter “jointly identify that social dialogue is not being respected and appropriately promoted at EU level”. The pact also points out that “making a clear distinction between social partner and public consultations”, which are differentiated within the TFEU, “is therefore essential”. The Commission once again promises to consult social partners on subjects that do not fall within their sphere of competence, as defined by Articles 153 and 154 of the TFEU, but are of “particular relevance” to them. This could have been the case for consultation aimed at simplifying the corporate sustainability reporting and due diligence directives. However, the Commission has invited 50 representatives from companies and employers’ organisations, and ten civil society organisations, including the ETUC and IndustriAll Europe. It is questionable whether they really want a balanced level of social partner involvement… They will also be consulted ahead of preparation of the Commission’s work programme.
The pact also contains a number of promises made by social partners themselves, with a view to discharging their current missions more effectively. Among other things, they plan on “jointly identifying what actions are necessary to improve the implementation at national level of their autonomous framework agreements”, which are generally recognised as being poorly implemented at the present time. Discussions on matters where there is disagreement are deferred to a future date: the question of how sectoral social dialogue committees should be funded is not dealt with, nor is that of what method should be used to ensure that EU, cross-industry and sectoral agreements are implemented in the form of a directive. The text makes reference to a discussion that has already taken place with social partners, via its communication on strengthening social dialogue in the European Union, published in 2023, which clearly did not come to anything.
©Dati Bendo, European Union, 2025

A national plan to combat forced labour and exploitation: : On 12 February, the federal government adopted an action plan comprising 83 measures (see action plan). The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs plans to introduce mechanisms providing support to workers, plus a network bringing together various actors from the world of work and social partners (see press release). The Länder [individual states] have drawn up 125 additional measures (see appendix).

Monitoring of digital platforms : In an open letter, 79 civil society organisations and alliances grouping together more than 1,000 other organisations, including the trade union federation ver.di, have called on the CDU/CSU and SPD negotiators responsible for drawing up the government’s programme to strengthen the monitoring of digital platforms, which, say the signatories, divide up the population and exclude minorities (see letter). ver.di’s President has emphasised that “the algorithms used by platforms lack transparency and often seem biased.” (see press release).

Agreement on the use of AI : On 12 October 2024, social partners in the cinematographic industry signed an appendix to their new collective agreement, which sets new standards on transparency, consent and financial compensation for the use of generative AI (see ver.di and UNI Europa press releases). For example, actors will be paid for AI-generated scenes based on a formula that calculates the equivalent number of shooting days.

Working life development strategy : The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health have launched a project aimed at improving productivity and wellbeing at work by 2035 (see press release). The strategy and its implementation are being prepared by a tripartite management group, and will be completed by summer 2026. It is based on consultation of nearly 100 experts and on research performed in 2024.

Restricting the right to strike : On 13 March, the government put forward a draft law aimed at ensuring that essential work can continue during industrial action. Up to now, this subject has been regulated by the social partners. The purpose is to ensure that “the critical functions of society can be maintained during the industrial action in cases where the parties do not reach an agreement for one reason or another”, says the Minister of Employment (see press release). The three trade unions SAK, Akava and STTK are critical of the initiative, arguing that Finland is moving away from the Nordic model by using the law to regulate this issue (see SAK press release).

Working women’s health : According to the Swedish Work Environment Authority, women are twice as likely as men to fall ill at work (see press release). They account for 70% of occupational illnesses, with some sectors, such as healthcare, being particularly vulnerable. Employers and employees can take measures to reduce these inequalities in several ways, including by rethinking the distribution of roles within a given profession.

Renegotiation : The management of the US computer technology group Oracle and its European Works Council have revised their EWC agreement. The EWC will elect a select committee comprising 5 members (including the Chair and a Deputy Chair). The select committee will meet twice a year, and also at the time of the annual plenary meeting. The select committee is entitled to call a second plenary meeting each year, which management cannot refuse without a valid reason. It will also meet whenever exceptional meetings are held. Such meetings may be organised in the event of a restructuring affecting 1.5% of the group’s entire workforce or 50% of the employees in one Member State and 50% of the employees in another Member State. The agreement provides the EWC with a budget of 50,000 euros each fiscal year (which cannot be carried forward) to cover experts’ fees. In exceptional circumstances, this budget may be exceeded with management’s agreement. In the event of a dispute, management will provide “the reasonable and necessary legal fees and any necessary court fees to pursue the dispute”. EWC members will be afforded the time needed to carry out their functions. EWC members’ line managers will be made aware of the important nature of their duties under this agreement and invited to take these into account during workload planning and appraisals. The agreement provides for a communique to be issued following the EWC’s annual and exceptional meetings. The text of this communique will be prepared by the select committee and promptly approved by management, which undertakes to then send it out to all employees. The text will state how EWC members can pass on the information received via the EWC to their counterparts at local level.