Social Dialogue Report 2022: Collective bargaining for an inclusive, sustainable and resilient recovery

It enables parties to tailor rules to their particular circumstances and to adapt them when circumstances change. It provides for “regulated flexibility” in respect of wages, working time and other conditions of work.

It facilitates inclusive labour protection, both in the coverage of enterprises and workers (e.g. workers on temporary contracts, migrant workers) by collective agreements and the manner in which such agreements address issues such as wages, social protection and terms of employment.

It helps create an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises, by promoting trust, cooperation and stability, the retention of firm-specific skills, and the pooled financing of social protection.

It strengthens compliance with statutory or negotiated labour standards, reducing statutory resources needed to monitor and enforce labour standards.

It forges resilience, by facilitating the trade-offs required to ensure business continuity and save jobs and earnings during a crisis, while transforming labour practices for a future with decent work.

The representative function of employer and business member organizations (EBMOs) and trade unions – both in terms of membership strength and capacity to integrate diverse interests – is the bedrock of effective social dialogue, including collective bargaining.

Investment in membership recruitment and retention strategies is vital, as is the development of the necessary expertise to engage in inclusive and effective evidence-based policy dialogue and collective bargaining going forward.

The ILO has repeatedly affirmed the universal nature of principles and rights enshrined in the fundamental Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

Realizing these principles and rights is only possible under a broader regulatory framework that encourages and promotes the full development of voluntary negotiations conducted in good faith.

Given the proliferation of diverse work arrangements in recent years, there is a need to review regulatory frameworks at the national level to ensure legal clarity, so that those needing protection are covered by labour laws and other laws and regulations.

Collective bargaining needs to take place within an enabling regulatory framework established by the State – or in some countries, by the parties themselves.

Such a framework should promote the full development of voluntary negotiations, including through the provision and sharing of information, the training of negotiators and facilitation and dispute resolution services to support collective bargaining.

Effective and inclusive social dialogue requires continued engagement on social and economic policy with and between peak-level employers’ and workers’ organizations, as well as with governments.

Investment in bipartite and tripartite social dialogue can provide the institutional means to ensure a human-centred recovery.

Social dialogue, including collective bargaining, can contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

While social dialogue is clearly vital for attaining Sustainable Development Goal 8 (on decent work and economic growth), it can also support other Goals through its unique contribution to the inclusive and effective governance of work.