Inclusive Social Dialogue
Empowering Trade Unions
Trade unions are democratic tools to enable workers to develop industrial relations into decent and mutually beneficial ones. The recognition and legal framework of trade union rights as guaranteed in the international labor standards, namely the freedom of association and the right to organize, the right to collective bargain, but also the organizational capacity of trade unions are the key preconditions. FES promotes strong trade unions by facilitating processes of political consolidation which would help shape this legal basis and by building up their capacity as an equal partner in bipartite and tripartite social dialogue in national and global issues.
Decent Work
The Decent Work agenda is central to efforts to reduce poverty, and it is a means for achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. Decent work entails more than international labor standards, aiming at employment and income opportunities, social protection and social security, social dialogue and tripartism. These objectives hold for all workers, women and men, in both formal and informal economies. FES supports the development of Decent Work oriented approaches to economic and social policy in cooperation with all stakeholders with a special emphasis on the improvement of the protection and basic rights of the most vulnerable workers, both informal and formal.