“Industry dialogue does not lack a sense of reality”

Industry dialogue to stimulate innovation

The different professional sectors will soon enter into the biannual dialogue about the evolution of your salary and working conditions. That is important. However, the industry dialogue is much broader than those periodical consultation rounds. “The importance of the industry dialogue is heavily underestimated,” says a disappointed Bernard Leemans. He was involved in that dialogue for years as chairman of joint committees and mediator between employers and trade unions. In addition, he taught Social Dialogue and Industrial Relations at EHSAL Management School and KU Leuven, respectively.

“It is a misconception that dialogue is always about conflicting interests. Much more often, the interests of employers and employees overlap and they use the dialogue to look for solutions to problems that concern both employees and employers. Those solutions are often quite innovative,” he remembers from his rich past. “In the 1990s, the dialogue already introduced outplacement and career guidance in industries confronted with the consequences of European integration and European budgetary discipline (Treaty of Maastricht). Today coaching employees is very normal. However, the idea of ‘bringing’ employees into the evolving labour market originates from the industry dialogue. The idea evolved later on.”

The sectors should be allowed to reach agreements without too much government interference. They are creative and innovative enough to find solutions.

Capital

That is how it still is, according to him. “A lot of coronavirus measures were introduced thanks to the industry dialogue. Concrete agreements were made to fight the virus in the workplace. I am also convinced that the negotiators from the industries will know what to do about the wage growth. Employees want more than 0.4%, from which employers will benefit too. I heard an employer say on television that her staff was her most important capital. I suppose she does not want to lose her staff? She understands that she has to do something to retain her personnel. The trade unions are always prepared to take the sectoral reality into account. None of the joint committees lack this sense of reality. That is why the sectors should be allowed to reach agreements without too much government interference. They are creative and innovative enough to find solutions. The conflicts are not insurmountable.”

The primacy of politics

According to Leemans, the ‘primacy of politics’ is a problem. “It was much less of a problem in the 1970s and the 1980s. At that time, the government had social partners develop agreements themselves. Interprofessional agreements were reached after a night of vigorous negotiation. However, interference from external factors gradually made its entrance. Europe introduced budgetary discipline (Treaty of Maastricht), the judicial power imposed restrictions and politicians wanted to have a say in the debate. On a sectoral level, that inference is much smaller.”

The media are to blame as well. “Conflicts are always blown out of proportion, which is why most people do not know that the dialogue is usually constructive. The media do not write about that. I also noticed that my students barely know what social security and social dialogue actually mean. Only those students who have parents with an HR position or who are working as trade union representatives had a notion of what it means. That is quite the challenge for education. I also see that trade unions hardly communicate about social security and social dialogue. They could use social media to inform people about it. Knowledge of social dialogue leads to understanding.”

New topics

The topics on the agenda of the industry dialogue change along with society itself. “Currently, migration is an important topic. We need foreign manpower, both for the labour market and to sustain the social security system.”
“The sectors can make agreements about training and integration. People who are new in Belgium have to learn a lot: not only the language, but our industrial relations as well. Part of this responsibility lies with the employers. We also need to make sure that the ones struggling with the technological evolutions are not left behind. We will need to find a solution for groups of employees with new statuses, like staff from Uber and Deliveroo or self-employed staff members within companies. Giving these groups a place in the social dialogue poses an important challenge, but it is possible. Just like the first word processing systems in the 90s caused a revolution, we are facing some dramatic changes today. However, our social partners did find solutions then, by entering into dialogue. The dialogue is still that agile today.”

“During the industry dialogue, trade unions and employers look for innovative solutions to shared challenges. Outplacement and coaching were born right there.”