Social Dialogue

Social dialogue may be institutionalized (formalized). In institutionalized dialogue a collective bargaining is conducted by expressly appointed institutions, councils or committees acting on the basis of legal acts or adopted agreements. Participation in the work of such institutions is limited to a few of the most representative organizations of trade unions and employers’ organizations which can have a real impact on the behavior of its members and urge them to comply with the arrangements of the tripartite body.
Non-institutional dialogue may be carried out by concluding collective labour agreements, consultations and giving opinions. Abovementioned embody the implementation of the social partners' organizations rights resulting from the respective legislation. It is possible to create a civil dialogue with the participation of non-governmental organizations in non-institutional forms of social dialogue.

A frequently practiced form of informal dialogue - especially in the event of a threat of social conflicts - are ad hoc contacts called incidental dialogue. It takes place outside of institutionalized contacts.

Social dialogue can be a method of mutual contacts between dialogue partners at different levels. There are several levels of dialogue:

International dialogue – is social dialogue conducted by international organizations of employers and employees and their associations of various character; an example of such a dialogue is the European social dialogue;

National dialogue – is conducted in a given country at the central level, most often through dialogue institutions such as social and economic councils (in Poland: the Social Dialogue Council);

Industry dialogue – concerns the issues of a specific sector of the national economy and is conducted through institutions formalized to different degrees (in the EU: sector committees, in Poland: tripartite industry teams; institutions of bipartite dialogue);

Regional dialogue – is conducted in the area of a given region or other administrative unit and refer to the problems of a given area (in Poland: voivodship social dialogue councils);

Company dialogue – comprise direct contacts between employers and representatives of company trade unions, employee councils or other employee representatives without the participation of the state administration representatives.

Social dialogue can have a bipartite, tripartite or even multilateral form.

Bipartite dialogue also known as autonomous dialogue is conducted by social partners (trade unions and employers' organizations) without the participation of government representatives.

Tripartite dialogue at the central level takes place between the social partners representing two parties of dialogue and the third party – the government. The participation of the government authorities in tripartite relations does not have to be equal. Government authorities can participate in the tripartite dialogue directly or only indirectly, using the results of autonomous arrangements and recommendations of the participants of given process.

Multilateral dialogue takes place when - in addition to the three parties: government, trade union and employers - representatives of another type of organization or institution, e.g. local government or representatives of corporate organizations, e.g. professionals and economic chambers (self-governments) participate in the discussion. Multilateral dialogue most frequently takes place in the case of sectoral dialogue. Representation of the parties extended to non-governmental organizations (NGOs: associations, foundations, etc.) - depending on the status granted to them during joint contacts - may give the social dialogue the features of a civic (civil) dialogue.