Social partners

Social partners are groups that cooperate in working relationships to achieve a mutually agreed upon goal, typically to the benefit of all involved groups. Examples of social partners include employers, employees, trade unions, government, etc.

The concept of social partners arose in Europe in part from the disorder following the Industrial Revolution. Article 152 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) states:

The Union recognises and promotes the role of the social partners at its level, taking into account the diversity of national systems. It shall facilitate dialogue between the social partners, respecting their autonomy.

This article forms part of the Primary Law of the European Union (EU).

Social partners have a vital role to play in reaching out to workers and owners of enterprises and in particular those of SMEs and the informal economy, and in general, increasing the representation of their membership to ensure deeper and broader benefits of association, representation and leadership, including in the field of public policy advocacy, its formulation and implementation.

With the approaching of globalization, companies must bear more pressure from the competitive between countries, more issues coming up such as the environment issue, the society problem and the income distribution problem after the globalization.

At the same time, new technology had replaced the status of traditional industries that cause structural unemployment to amount of the Low-skill labors.

Also the relationship between employee and employer becomes more complicated as the atypical employment turns into mainstream in the employment market. Because of these circumstances, the relationship between labor and employer has become more like partners. And this new idea of social partners had taken shape through the International Labor Organization (ILO1) and Europe social partnership system.

But there are quite few research and example about social partners in the US，the reason is that noun ”social partner” come up after WW2, that made European understand the importance of peace in every way, this new concept helped Europe rebuild the economy after the damage of war.

There is an inextricable connection between social partners and social dialogue, but what makes a good social dialogue?

The Treaty of Lisbon (Article 152 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU) recognises the role of the social partners in labour relations and European social dialogue. They represent their members during consultations with the Commission and the negotiation of collective agreements. They also sit with the European Economic and Social Committee, alongside other organisations representing civil society. The social partners play a key role in implementing the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, by launching projects and initiatives at European and national level.

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