Sektorale Sozialdialoge auf EU-Ebene

What's the point of European Sectoral Social Dialogue? Effectiveness and polycontexturality in the hospital and metal sectors

“…Few attempts have been made to understand the national social partners' engagement and strategies (Léonard, 2008). Only recently have some studies focused on partners' interactions, goals and nuanced interests (Perin, 2014;Weber, 2013). The present article contributes to such bottom-up and horizontal approaches by studying the experiences and expectations of national social partners taking part in ESSD.…”

“…'Upwards' effectiveness is also referred to briefly, in that 'joint opinions and common contributions to consultation have also proved to be powerful instruments for influencing European policies or defending a sector's interest' (EC, 2010a: 9). In addition, Weber (2013) found that some ESSD participants actually rank tools higher than other outputs because of their practical usability, while Tricart (2019) showed how the EC itself does not always support the production of hard regulation in practice.…”

“…In addition, the decreasing number of outcomes produced yearly indicated that ESSD was 'not, in any general sense, becoming more active' (Degryse, 2015: 44). Even if the soft outcomes could have a potential for governance (Weber, 2013), their actual 'regulatory capacity' was deemed 'weak' (Léonard, 2008: 405;Léonard et al, 2011).…”

“…This 'lasting stalemate' (Keller, 2008: 219) was said to be due to the heterogeneity of sectors, industrial relations in the MS and interests between unions and employers -the former wanting more European regulation and the latter favouring more decentralisation and soft tools. Social partners had diverging conceptualisation of what 'dialogue' should be (Léonard, 2008) and what the term 'social partner' implied (Weber, 2013). Perin and Léonard (2011) claimed that the effectiveness of ESSD depended on the 'vertical relationship' between the European federations and their national affiliates: the upward representativeness, interest coordination and mandating, and the involvement, commitment and downward implementation.…”

“…There is a closeness between these vectors and the three 'functions' of ESSD, namely, 'regulation', 'lobbying' and 'learning' (Weber, 2013). However, as vectors, they are simplified abstractions of a multitude of slightly differently angled observational distinctions, flexibly and pragmatically adapted by the individual and organisational observers of the operations of EESD committees.…”