Social Dialogues: Tranquil Past, Troubled Present and Uncertain Future

The implementation of the Telework and Work-related Stress Agreements: European social dialogue through ‘soft’ law?

“…A first critique centred on the continued reluctance of European-level employers' associations to participate meaningfully: it was argued that the primary motivation of European employers in entering collective negotiations was to fend off the threat of legislation from the European Commission (Gold, 1998;Hall, 1994;Streeck, 1994). The dialogue was thus heavily dependent on the initiative of the Commission (Smismans, 2008), which was applying diminishing pressure on the European social partners to enter such negotiations (Keller and Bansbach, 2001;Keller and Platzer, 2003).…”

The European company statute: employee involvement—and beyond

“…Formal preconditions could be similar or even equal but their contextual meaning within national industrial relations can be different between Member States. Differing patterns of national tradition will prevail during the processes of transposition at national and, later on, implementation at company level (Keller and Bansbach, 2001 for some very similar results concerning social dialogues). Moreover, it is quite remarkable that in cases of hidden and/or informal non-compliance, the substance of Directives can be further watered down at national level.…”

Talking Ourselves to Death? The Prospects for Social Dialogue in North America—Lessons from Alberta

“…The term social dialogue appeared relatively recently, its emergence connected to the signing of the EU Maastricht Treaty in 1992, yet it is best understood as an EU-level extension of a long-practiced approach of institutionalized, tripartite policy making among labor, employers, and the state (Keller 2003). This article utilizes the term social dialogue as it is generally accepted as the natural offspring of earlier terms (Keller and Bansbach 2001;Molina and Rhodes 2002).…”

“…The cases are, however, unequivocally tripartite processes as representatives of the state, capital, and labor were present and equally involved in the process. Indeed, even in Europe some efforts at SD fall short in key ways in meeting the definition, particularly recently as the state's commitment to tripartitism was weakened (Keller and Bansbach 2001). Policy making in a real-world context often deviates from ideal.…”