Time: 13:30 - 16:00h

Speakers and subjects:

• Kostas Papadakis (ILO - International Institute for Labour Studies) Cross-border social dialogue and agreements: an emerging global industrial relations framework?

• Udo Rehfeldt (Institut de Recherches Economiques Sociales) and Isabel da Costa (Centre Nationale de Recherches Scientifiques - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l’Economie (CNRS-IDHE) Transnational collective bargaining at company level: Historical developments in the automobile industry

• Isabelle Schömann (European Trade Union Institute) Codes of conduct and international framework agreements: new forms of governance at company level?

Comments by: Marie Helena André (European Trade Union Confederation) tbc
Kurt Vannieuwenhuyse (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM)

Venue:

International Trade Union House,
first floor, Room D,
Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 5,
B-1210, Brussels

Please confirm your attendance by 23th October to:

Tristan Macdonald
Communication Officer
ETUI
00 32 (0)2 224 0562

The publication “cross-border social dialogue and agreements: an emerging global industrial relations framework” recently published by the International Institute for Labour Studies (IILS) examines how the rise of globalisation has generated a mismatch between the scope of the activities of multinational companies which is increasingly transnational and the scope of action of social actors such trade unions which remain largely embedded at national level.

This mismatch reflects a wider systematic disequilibrium in terms of available tools of action and power between multinationals and workers.

In response to this issue and in absence of a state-driven multilateral framework, numerous private initiatives have appeared. International framework agreements (IFAs), which are the outcome of negotiations between individual multinational enterprises and global union federations, have emerged since the late 1980s in order to introduce or reinforce a global 'social floor' or social rights that are accessible to all workers in the global economy.

Kostas Papadakis, Isabel da Costa and Udo Rehfeldt who contributed to the book will be in Brussels on 29th October to present their recent research on this issue along with Isabelle Schömann who has also recently published research on IFAs. Click here for further information - source Eurofound.