Transnationale soziale Dialoge und ihr Beitrag für den europäischen sozialen Fortschritt

In our times of globalisation, an effective employment law that transcends national borders is of great public interest. In a project funded by the DFG (Germany’s central research funding organisation), the potential of transnational social dialogues in Europe to shape society innovatively was examined. To this end, 2500 agreements of European works councils and social dialogues according to the TFEU that are either specific to one industry or relate to a number of sectors, transnational company agreements and multi-actor agreements were collected, coded and comparatively assessed. Social dialogues have brought about innovations in employment law and/or have concretised abstract norms in the context of industry, as this study proves in the areas of health and safety, information and consultation, anti-discrimination rights and compatibility with European legal regulations. However, this study finds that in order for transnational social dialogues to have a sustainable effect in their approach to setting standards, they require more legal support on both a national and European level.