Whatever Happened to Social Dialogue? From Partnership to Managerialism in the EU Employment Agenda

There has been a major bifurcation in the level and form of social dialogue between employers and unions within the EU. The intersectoral and sectoral social dialogue launched by the Val Duchesse process in 1985 now runs in parallel with domestic forms that are merely reacting to agendas established by the Commission and the Council. This article, based on interviews with employer, union and government representatives across six EU member states, argues that the European Employment Strategy is converting social dialogue into a managerialist process by decentralizing it to national level and co-opting the social partners into taking responsibility for meeting employment targets over which they have had no influence.