About the department

Mission statement

As part of the ILO Social Dialogue Sector, the Industrial and Employment Relations Department has a number of functions.

It is responsible for:

• i) the promotion of sound industrial and employment relations;
  ii) the development of well-balanced labour laws; and
  iii) the support of tripartite dialogue.
   
• DIALOGUE works closely with the units in its Sector and with other ILO Departments to promote social dialogue and tripartism across socio-economic policy agendas. This collaboration helps mainstream social dialogue and tripartism into the ILO's work as a whole.
• It maintains close links with ILO Field Offices in order to ensure that sound tools of industrial relations, social dialogue and adequate legal frameworks are incorporated into the Decent Work Country Programmes and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.
• It works with the International Training Centre in Turin in the preparation and the delivery of training materials and programmes in the field of industrial relations, social dialogue and labour law. It also develops partnerships with research and academic institutions around the world.

DIALOGUE's priority activities

The activities of DIALOGUE in the broader area of industrial and employment relations and labour law are driven by the following objectives:

• Helping to develop sound industrial relations at the enterprise, sectoral, national, regional and international levels;
• Establishing and/or strengthening legal and institutional frameworks, machineries and processes of bipartite and tripartite social dialogue and collective bargaining;
• Encouraging more countries to base their labour legislation on ILO standards and best comparative labour law practices, and to design such laws through tripartite consultation;
• Supporting member States in establishing and strengthening labour courts, industrial tribunals and dispute resolution mechanisms, to enable them to deal efficiently and equitably with individual and collective disputes;
• Integrating gender equality in all aspects of industrial and employment relations and labour law;
• Increasing the participation of employers' and workers' organizations in economic and social policy-making at all levels;
• Enhancing links with the social partners at various levels, along with key international institutions and other global socio-economic actors (e.g., multinational enterprises and global union federations).

How does DIALOGUE deliver these services?

DIALOGUE services are delivered to tripartite constituents through a combination of three activities, ranging from advocacy and the provision of technical advice to member States and social partners, the generation of original research, to knowledge-sharing activities. Gender considerations cross-cut through all these activities:

Technical cooperation

• Helping to design and implement national labour laws and regulations;
• Supporting the development of effective industrial relations institutions and mechanisms for collective bargaining and dispute resolution;
• Promoting social dialogue and tripartism as tools for delivering decent work and fostering good governance;
• Capacity-building of tripartite constituents in the field of labour legislation and employment relations;
• Providing institutional support to tripartite and bipartite bodies;
• Promoting the ratification and implementation of social dialogue-related international labour standards;
• Training on mediation and conciliation procedures, and negotiations skills.

Building expertise through research activities

• Comparative research on labour law trends and industrial relations processes and outcomes;
• Development of statistical indicators, legal databases and country profiles;
• Networking with external academic and research institutions, particularly through its close relationship with the IIRA.

Knowledge-sharing activities

• Managing online fora for information sharing;
• Providing the Secretariat of the International Industrial Relations Association (IIRA) and of the International Society for Labour and Social Security Law (ISLSSL) and their respective newsletters.
• Maintaining a database on termination of employment legislation;
• Devising National Labour Law Profiles and guidelines on labour legislation and on the employment relationship.

The structure of DIALOGUE

DIALOGUE services are developed and delivered by a system of overlapping technical teams with a thematic and a regional focus. Specialists on Industrial Relations and labour law in ILO Field Offices are closely involved in the work of these teams.

This structure, functioning in a complementary and integrated manner, reflects the broad aspects of industrial and employment relations and labour law.

• Thematic teams: industrial relations, social dialogue, labour law.
• Regional teams: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East.