Sectoral social dialogue - Woodworking

Social partners

Workers' organisations	Employers' organisations
European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW)	European Confederation of woodworking industries (CEI-Bois)

Social dialogue in this sector covers activities defined by NACE (Rev. 2) code 16:

sawmilling
manufacture of wood, cork, straw & plaiting products (except furniture).

It excludes forestry and logging.

EU-wide, the woodworking sector employs just over 1 m people (Eurostat, 2014, Labour Force Survey data), in nearly 180 000 firms (Eurostat, Business Statistics 2013).

The sector's competitive strengths include:

the strong technology, know-how and skills base
proximity & access to one of the world’s largest markets
rising labour productivity, largely due to increased use of automation & information technology.

Challenges include:

expanding the use of wood, although other materials are increasingly being used instead,
competitive weaknesses arising from the limited awareness of the properties and opportunities of wood in the EU,
high factor costs, causing low profitability.

Key areas

The Committee is currently focusing on:

industry policy, including innovative actions, demographic changes & sustainable development
vocational education & training
health & safety
environmental policy.