Social partners

Social dialogue in this sector covers activities defined by NACE (Rev. 2) classes 13 and 14:

• manufacture & production of textiles
• manufacture & production of clothing.

EU-wide, the textile and clothing sector employs over 1.86m people (Eurostat, 2014 Labour Force Survey data) - about 0.85% of the EU workforce - in over 180 000 firms (Eurostat, 2014 Business Statistics).

The industry is competitive in areas such as technical and industrial textiles, non-woven products and high-quality fashion. The workforce in these areas is skilled in new technologies.

Job opportunities are geographically spread, and the workforce is skilled in the use of new technologies.

Job opportunities are spread over a wide geographic area.

Challenges include:

• tariffs & other trade barriers
• job losses, particularly in the textile sub-sector, which is less oriented towards private consumption than the clothing sector.

Key areas

The Committee is currently focusing on:

• external trade negotiations
• following Commission initiatives on industrial policy & competitiveness of the manufacturing industry
• anticipating industrial changes
• building the capacity of social partners
• skills
• corporate social responsibility
• health and safety issues.

Activities & meetings

Check the library entries for this sectoral social dialogue committee.

Achievements/Joint texts

Check the social dialogue texts database