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Representativity study: Traxler, F. (2007), Representativeness of the social partners: Agricultural sector, EIRO, Dublin, October 2007

http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/studies/tn0608017s/tn0608017s.htm

Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (SSDC)

Agriculture is one of the sectors most heavily affected by EU policy developments: establishment of the common agricultural policy (CAP) in the 1960s; surplus production crises in the 1970s and 1980s; protracted reforms of the CAP in the 1990s and 2000s, etc. This is the backdrop to social dialogue in the sector.

Historically, the European agricultural sector is the one that has been keenest on harmonising working conditions with a view to improving them. Social dialogue in the sector brings together the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT) for the workers, and the Employers' Group of Agricultural Organisations in the EC (COPA-COGECA) for the employers. Agreements on working time were concluded back in the 1960s. The next topics to be addressed were training, working conditions, social protection, the combating of undeclared labour, early retirement, etc.

Social dialogue in this sector originally centred around the development of a fully-fledged European system of industrial relations, by means of reciprocal commitments. However, the many protracted reforms of the common agricultural policy also led to a new dimension in this SSD, namely lobbying of the European institutions.

The “agriculture” sectoral social dialogue has resulted, since 1978, in the adoption of 32 joint texts.

Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (SSDC)

The shipbuilding sector, an extremely diverse industry, is highly cyclical and has, overall, seen an almost continuous decline in employment. The issue of state aid and international competition, especially from Asia, is key to this sector. The industry has been badly buffeted by the global economic and financial crisis since 2008, with an unprecedented collapse in the demand for new vessels – around 90% – and almost 15,000 jobs under threat across the EU.

Shipbuilding, the first subsector of the metalworking industry to organise itself into a Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (SSDC), has developed a social dialogue that is mainly geared to lobbying the European institutions. It brings together the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF) for the workers, and the Community of European Shipyards’ Associations (CESA) for the employers. One of the main topics addressed to date is vocational training and skills, with a view to improving the sector’s image among young people.

The range of topics covered by sectoral social dialogue in the European shipbuilding sector has so far remained very narrow: indeed the sole topic is human resources. The objectives set for social dialogue in the SSDC rules of procedure remain a long way off. Whereas the trade union side would like to see a stepping up of dialogue, internal splits on the employers’ side appear to be hampering progress.

The “shipbuilding” sectoral social dialogue has resulted, since 2003, in the adoption of 2 joint texts.