Representativeness
Updated: 22 October 2026
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Activity
Industrial relations and social dialogue
Industrial relations and social dialogue is one of Eurofound's main operational activities for its 2025–2028 programming period. Building on the past 50 years of research, Eurofound continues to function as a centre of expertise for monitoring and analysing developments in industrial relations and social dialogue at European and national levels and promoting dialogue between management and labour. This research activity responds to the need to support social dialogue and provide comparative data on national institutional settings and developments as well as European-level developments.
Research focus
Eurofound’s research priorities are shaped by the opportunities and challenges arising from four mega-drivers: demographic change, climate change, technological change and re-globalisation. In the area of industrial relations and social dialogue, the Agency also continues to monitor, report and analyse developments in this area at transnational, national, sector and, as far as feasible, company levels.
As part of this research activity, Eurofound carries out sectoral representativeness studies, at the request of the European Commission. Research also builds on the knowledge around the degree and form of the social partners’ involvement in national tripartite policymaking in the context of the European Semester.
Drawing on the expertise of the Network of Eurofound Correspondents, regular updating of the EU PolicyWatch database offers examples of collective agreements, company cases and other initiatives, and captures how national governments involve the social partners in policymaking.
Preparations are underway for the 2026 edition of the Tripartite Exchange Seminar, in cooperation with the relevant partners.
Related topics
Social dialogue
Updated: 22 October 2026
New
Social partners
Updated: 22 October 2026
New
Industrial relations
Updated: 19 October 2026
Minimum wage
Updated: 5 October 2026
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Pay and income
Updated: 5 October 2026
Collective bargaining
Updated: 16 July 2026
Agreements
Updated: 19 December 2025
Events
In-person event
Joint event
Tripartite Exchange Seminar (TES) 2026
Date10 – 12 June 2026
LocationBrussels
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This event is in the past
In-person event
External event
Informal meeting of the Employment Committee (EMCO)
Date25 – 26 September 2025
Time10:30h‒11:30h (Irish local time)
Time10:30 (Europe/Copenhagen)
LocationCopenhagen
This event is in the past
In-person event
External event
Informal meeting of employment and social affairs ministers (EPSCO)
Date14 – 15 April 2025
LocationAalborg, DK
This event is in the past
In-person event
Joint event
Joint event: Enhancing quality of work and life through effective social dialogue in the Western Balkans
DateThursday, 3 April 2025
LocationTirana
Other event
6th UNI Europa Conference
Date25 – 27 March 2025
Location
This event is in the past
All content
This list provides access to all Eurofound outputs published on this subject.
Eurofound expert
Christine Aumayr-Pintar
Senior research managerWorking life research
Christine Aumayr-Pintar is a senior research manager in the Working Life unit at Eurofound. Her primary research expertise – approached from a comparative EU-wide standpoint – centres on minimum wages, collectively negotiated pay, social dialogue and gender pay transparency. She has co-authored Eurofound's annual reviews on minimum wages for the past decade, has a passion for industrial relations data and has developed – among other projects – the database on minimum wages in collective agreements for low-paid workers and the EU PolicyWatch database. Between 2021 and 2026 she also coordinated Eurofound's research on social dialogue and managed the Network of Eurofound Correspondents. Prior to joining Eurofound in 2009 she was a labour markets and regional economics researcher at Joanneum Research in Austria. She holds a Master's degree in Economics and a PhD in Social Science/Economics, having studied economics in Graz, Vienna and Jönköping.
