Social Dialogue Indicators : Trade Union Membership and Collective Bargaining Coverage, Statistical Concepts, Methods and Findings

Efforts on promoting social dialogue have focused on measuring labour statistics and enhancing international comparability. One of their goals is to strengthen tripartism and social dialogue by creating a set of indicators specific to measuring social dialogue, which would overall contribute to bringing decent work for all. The statistics were collected from 68 countries from different parts of the world and this paper uses that data to discuss the concepts and methods relating to social dialogue indicators such as trade union membership and collective bargaining. The paper aims to analyze the differences between these two kinds of social dialogue indicators to improve them and to better understand their statistical meanings. Additionally, the paper highlights the need for these indicators to have more international consensus and develop the capacity of national statistical authorities and social partners to use them more efficiently