Workshop ‘The European Social Dialogue: new procedures, new context’
Law School
Cardiff University
Museum Avenue
Cardiff
Friday 5th June 2009
Workshop in the context of the Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law and Governance
The workshop aims at taking stock of the latest developments in the European social dialogue.
The objective is to finalise a publication relatively soon after the workshop.
The European social dialogue does no longer primarily function as a regulatory technique by way of
cross-sectoral agreements implemented by Council Directive. Instead a more autonomous dialogue
has developed with an increasing procedural diversity and bargaining activities at several levels.
The first part of the workshop (and publication) provides a picture of the heterogeneity of social
dialogue practices at several levels, paying particular attention to the use of autonomous
agreements, developments in the sectoral dialogue, and interactions between several levels of
dialogue, including European company level.
The second part places the European social partners activities in the context of the changing nature
of the European social dimension. Changing European policy priorities and paradigms have
influenced the role of the European social partners over the last years, such as the (renewed) Lisbon
Strategy, the focus on flexicurity, the impact of enlargement and increased attention for the EU’s
external dimension, and the recent case law reminding us about the precarious balance between
social and economic values in Europe’s constitutional design.
Practical info:
Travel and accommodation will be reimbursed thanks to the financial support of the European
Commission, as part of the Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law and Governance at Cardiff Law School.
We will arrange for the hotel booking at
Park Plaza Cardiff, Greyfriars Road, Cardiff CF10 3AL,
Phone +44(0) 2920 111 111
http://www.parkplaza.com/cardiffuk
(about 10 minutes walk from Cardiff Central station)
Programme
8.40 Leaving from the hotel to the Law School (short walk)
9.00 Welcome by Stijn Smismans
PART 1: Developments in the multi-level collective bargaining game
The cross-sectoral dialogue
9.15 Tobias Mullensiefen (European Commission, DG Employment and Social Affairs): the current
parental leave negotiations
The sectoral dialogue
9.45 Philippe Pochet (Director European Trade Union Institute): sectoral dialogue
10.15 Michael Kaeding (Lecturer European Institute of Public Administration):
"New kids on the block - European social dialogue for central public administrations".
10.45-11.15 Coffee break
11.15 Peter Turnbull (Professor of Human Resource Management Labour Relations at Cardiff
Business School): Social dialogue in the transport sector: developments in ports.
Transnational collective bargaining
11.45 Roland Erne (Lecturer School of Business UCD Dublin): European unions - and the
prospects of transnational collective bargaining.
PART II: The changing European ‘social dimension’ and the social dialogue
Lisbon Strategy and social dialogue
12.15 Janine Goetschy (Senior Research Fellow of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
in France, and Professor at the Free University of Brussels): The Lisbon Strategy and Industrial
Relations
12.45 Nicole Kerschen (Senior Research Fellow of the Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique in France and Université de Paris X): The Employment Strategy and the social
dialogue
1.15-2.15 Lunch in Law School
Laval/Viking
2.15 Phil Syrpis (Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol, Law School): Laval, Viking …
2.45 Nick Parsons (Reader, Cardiff University, School of European Studies): Posted-workers and
the political reaction to the case-law.
Enlargement and New Member States
3.15 Magnus Feldmann (Lecturer, University of Bristol, Politics Department): The influence of the
EU on IR in Estonia and Slovenia
3.45-4.15 Coffee break
Flexicurity and social dialogue
4.15 Maarten Keune (Senior Researcher at European Trade Union Institute): Flexicurity and social
dialogue: the European level and national positions.
4.45 Marcello Pedaci (Researcher at University of Teramo), paper together with Luigi Burroni
(Associate Professor University of Teramo): The EU and flexicurity; lessons for industrial relations
from the Italian case.
5.15 Conclusion and publication plans
5.30 End
8.00 Conference dinner at Laguna Restaurant
Other participants
Steve Davies (Senior Research Fellow, Cardiff School of Social Sciences)
Sara Drake (Lecturer, Cardiff Law School)
Edmund Heery (Professor of Employment Relations, Cardiff Business School, Director Centre for
Global Labour Research)
Jo Hunt (Senior Lecturer, Cardiff Law School)
Dean Stroud (Lecturer, Cardiff School of Social Sciences)