Conference Agenda

This 90-minute session will consist of four sections: a brief introduction, a concise summary of the Social Dialogue Report 2024 and its key findings/messages, a panel discussion of the challenges and opportunities for peak-level social dialogue (PLSD) around the world, and an audience Q&A with the panellists. Lieve Verboven will chair the session and deliver a brief introduction. Damian Grimshaw and Andrea Marinucci will present the Social Dialogue Report 2024.

The presentation will focus on the barriers to effective and inclusive PLSD around the world, such as short-term and non-inclusive approaches to economic development, neglect of the fundamental principles and rights at work, low trade union density and patchy collective bargaining coverage, inadequate representation of the informal economy, and poorly resourced labour administration systems and social partner organisations. The globally diverse panellists will then speak to these issues, outlining the opportunities and challenges for PLSD from the perspectives of different regions. While panellists will note good practices of PLSD when appropriate, discussion will largely highlight the present limitations to PLSD in order to ensure we address the session’s most pressing question – what must be done to strengthen peak-level social dialogue in national policy-making and sector collective bargaining and how to ensure its relevance for the most disadvantaged workers?