Integrating Diversity in Social Dialogue (INTEGRATE DIALOGUE)
INTEGRATE‑DIALOGUE is a Horizon Europe project investigating how social dialogue across the Europe can become more inclusive of workers in non-standard forms of employment, including temporary, part‑time, on‑call, dependent self‑employed and other precarious arrangements. These groups are often excluded from collective representation and lack opportunities to have their interests heard in key decision‑making forums.
The project aims to develop an integrated, evidence-based framework for understanding both:
- the needs, interests and motivations of non-standard workers (NSWs)to engage with social dialogue (bottom‑up perspective), and
- the capacity and willingness of social partners—trade unions, employer bodies, and other actors—to include these workers in existing structures (top‑down perspective).
Through comparative research across Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia and the United Kingdom, the project will provide robust analysis and actionable policy recommendations to strengthen social dialogue at EU, national, regional, sectoral and firm levels.
Objectives:
INTEGRATE‑DIALOGUE will:
- Identify why inclusive social dialogue matters for fairness, effectiveness and labour‑market cohesion.
- Examine how national institutional frameworks and business models shape opportunities for including NSWs in dialogue structures.
- Analyse both the structural barriers faced by social partners and NSWs’ own perceptions and motivations.
- Explore innovative and alternative forms of worker representation and voice.
- Provide policy recommendations to enhance the legal and institutional framework for inclusive social dialogue.
IER Contribution:
IER contributes to several work packages across INTEGRATE‑DIALOGUE, supporting comparative analysis, qualitative fieldwork, and the synthesis of findings on the inclusion of non-standard workers in social dialogue.
Alongside this wider involvement, IER serves as lead partner for Work Package 5 (WP5), which focuses on novel models of worker voice and representation.
