INTEGRATE-DIALOGUE aims to enhance the inclusiveness of social dialogue in the EU, United Kingdom and Norway, focusing on non-standard workers (NSWs).

It addresses the need for their effective representation in the evolving labour market, marked by digital and green transitions, to prevent an increase in inequality, in-work poverty, and social exclusion.

The project proposes a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and comparative approach encompassing multiple countries, business models, various forms of NSWs, and social dialogue at different levels.

The novelty of the initiative is to place NSWs needs, interests and motivations for representation and voice in the spotlight (bottom-up perspective).

These findings will be matched by strategies, willingness and distributional costs among social partners to include NSWs in social dialogue processes, and how this is played out in different Industrial Relations and employment regimes (top-down approach).

To investigate barriers and facilitators for integrating NSWs into social dialogue, we combine a social science and legal approach. Stakeholder engagement will be used to offer actionable insights and recommendations for policymakers, social partners, and other stakeholders.

Through extensive dissemination activities, including developing an Open Policy Toolbox, we will make social partners able to adjust strategies, and bridge gaps between NSWs and social partner. The ultimate goal is to create a cohesive, effective, and legally robust environment that supports an inclusive and adaptive social dialogue framework, ensuring that all workers are effectively represented and their interests safeguarded in the face of rapid market transformations.

The project comprises distinguished scholars located in eight European countries, representing various Industrial Relations and employment regimes. These scholars possesses extensive experience researching non-standard workers and social dialogue, both nationally and comparatively.

INTEGRATE-DIALOGUE combines a top-down approach, focusing on the role of social partners and unions in approaching and including NSWs in collective institutions and a the bottom-up perspective, i.e., NSWs’ needs and interests to be represented and have a voice.

The project will specifically look into the following main issues:

1. the rationale for social dialogue
2. the importance of the institutional framework in facilitating social dialogue within different business models
3. the capacity and willingness of social partners to include NSWs
4. the subjective view of NSWs on social dialogue
5. alternative policies that lead to the strengthening of social dialogue.