Social dialogue and industrial relations during the economic crisis: innovative practices or business as usual?

This paper evaluates the role social dialogue played so far in dealing with the crisis on various levels in Europe. Taking into account the different institutional frameworks on the national level, company level responses that rarely included training measures as well as collective bargaining measures lacked behind the scope of their possibilities in many European countries. The paper therefore highlights the importance of greater coordination between the different levels of Social Dialogue with the aim not to face an increasing ineffectiveness of such measures.