© ILO
© ILO

Statistics on social dialogue

Table of Contents

See also

Introduction

Ensuring adequate working conditions is crucial for our well-being and that of our families. Social dialogue – which includes negotiations and consultations among labour market actors, collective bargaining and dispute prevention and resolution – helps promote adequate working conditions, peace, and social justice. Successful social dialogue can resolve economic and social issues and effectively address economic crises, impacting stability, labour market governance, and the economy.

Unions are independent workers’ organizations constituted for the purpose of furthering and defending the interests of workers. As such, they play a key role in the quest to achieve better remuneration and working conditions. Similarly, the scope, coverage and frequency of collective bargaining, the items negotiated and the outcome of negotiations have a great impact on workers’ conditions. Meanwhile, grievances and conflicts are an inevitable part of the employment relationship. The objective of public policy is to manage conflict and promote sound labour relations by creating a system for the effective prevention and settlement of labour disputes. The number, frequency, duration and scope of strikes and lockouts all have a great impact on the labour market, the economy and workers’ well-being. 

To assess the extent of social dialogue, reliable data on unions and unionization, employers’ organizations, collective bargaining and industrial disputes is essential. This page presents statistics and other information on these topics.

Data catalogue

Featured publication

Methods

Related pages

About SDG indicator 8.8.2

SDG indicator 8.8.2 – Level of national compliance with labour rights (freedom of association and collective bargaining) based on ILO textual sources and national legislation

© Marcel Crozet/ ILO
Industrial Relations Data (IRdata)

Concise description of concepts and definitions, uses, sources and limitations for indicators in the database Industrial Relations Data (IRdata), including collective bargaining and union membership.

Publications

Many publications are available in English only. Click on the + sign for other languages, if available, and additional information. 

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Use the search box and filters above the table

Use the search box to enter key words; use quotes around your term for better results. Available filters differ depending on the catalogue. Selecting a frequency allows users to find monthly, quarterly, or annual indicators. While all indicators are available for annual periods, only a subset are available as monthly or quarterly. 

Options to access data

Data Explorer

This tool provides an intuitive interface to filter the selection, pivot the table, calculate distributions and growth rates, and export data into various formats.

Excel summary

Data available in the Excel summary files are for indicators only (not available for countries or regions) for selected classification items for 2010 onward for annual data and 2018 onward for short-term indicators. For historical data or additional classifications, either use the Data Explorer or download the CSV file. 

Country profiles

Available in the country catalogue only, this option takes users to the country profiles page with the selected country pre-filtered in the table. Highlighting the latest year available for key indicators, this is a subset of the available data for a given country.

Zipped csv (gz)

Download a zipped CSV file (gzip) to get data in bulk. These files contain only codes. Download the dictionary with labels here

There are other options to access data in the data tools section

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