Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion

Cross-industry social dialogue

The social dialogue committee:

  • is the main body for bipartite (i.e. between trade unions and employers) social dialogue at European level
  • meets 3-4 times a year to discuss employer/worker views on employment and social topics, adopt texts negotiated by both parties and plan future initiatives
  • consists of maximum 66 representatives of the social partners, equally divided between the employers' and the workers' representative organisations and including the EU Secretariats of the cross-industry social partners, as well as representatives from the national member organisations on each side
  • can set up technical working groups to discuss various issues like labour market challenges, reconciliation of working and family life etc.
  • adopts and follow up the results of negotiations between employers and workers' representative bodies
  • takes part in social dialogue summits high-level meetings chaired by the president of the Commission.

At cross-industry level, the bipartite European social dialogue takes place between the following organisations:

More information

Share this page