Industrial relations within the European Union

Since 1997, the IST has been co-ordinating a comparative research programme centred on the study of the different aspects of industrial relations systems, on behalf of the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission.

This project has three main pillars :

- The institutional framework and the collective bargaining process ; 
- Trends in collective bargaining on employment ;
- Institutional representativeness of employers' and employees' organisations in Europe (at inter-professional level and at sector level)

In the framework of this project, IST has collaborated with a network of 15 national research centres in the field of employment and industrial relations policy.

Since 2003, IST has been co-ordinating two studies for the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission : one is a study on the representativeness of the social partners and the state of the social dialogue in the 15 member countries of the European Union, and the other is a study based on monographs on the situation of the social partners in the new member countries of the Union and in three candidate countries (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey). To this end, a network of 28 university experts was set up. Since 2005, the study on the representativeness of the social partners and the state of the social dialogue covers the 25 member countries of the European Union.

Most reports are downloadable (in PDF format ).

Important Remark : The content of the present publications does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Directorate-General for Employment and Social Affairs of the European Commission. These studies have been carried out by independent experts and their content, in no way, commits the responsibility of the Commission. Nevertheless, the European organisations concerned have had the opportunity to comment on the content of the studies, prior to the drawing up of the definitive versions.

2006 (in progress - 25 member states and 3 candidate countries)

The woodworking and furniture sectors
The mining and quarrying sector
The fishing industry sector

2005

Football sector	UE-25	Candidate countries	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Shipbuilding industry sector	UE-25	Candidate countries	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Chemicals industry sector				Summary	Zussamenfassung

2004

Former UE-15
Industrial cleaning sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Temporary agency work sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Culture and media sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
New member states and candidate countries
Construction sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Electricity sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Road transport sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung

2003

Former UE-15
Private security sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Central public services	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
New member states and candidate countries
Intersectoral level	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Trade sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung
Textile sector	Résumé	Summary	Zussamenfassung

2001 (mostly only available in English, see table of contents)

The electricity production and distribution sector
The hairdressing and beauty care sector
The local public sector
The hotel, restaurant, café sector (HORECA)
The agriculture sector

2000 (mostly only available in French)

The air transport sector
The rail transport sector
The river transport sector
The maritime transport sector
The road transport sector
The banking sector (for summaries by country in English see table of contents page 26)
The insurance sector (for summaries by country in English see table of contents page 23)

1999 (only available in French)

The construction sector
The Trade and distribution sector
The telecommunications sector
The postal sector
The textile and apparel sector