Increasingly, there is greater recognition that a partnership approach between employers and workers can deliver collective goals and can be in the best interests of both parties. In this connection, the relationships between the IOE and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), as well as between the Employers’ Group and the Workers’ Group of the ILO have been strengthened in recent years. In particular in one area of critical importance for employers - HIV/AIDS - the IOE and ICFTU have worked closely in developing a joint approach.

Social dialogue has for over eighty years been at the heart of the ILO and has been the means through which the ILO has responded to the needs of the world of work. It has also been the means through which it has developed its mandate. Historically, the only recognized actors in that dialogue with governments have been employers and workers and their respective organizations.
Whereas in the past the acceptance of both the concept of social dialogue and the status of the participants was well understood within the ILO, that now appears to be changing. Thinking is emerging to suggest that social dialogue in its current form is limiting the ILO’s sphere of influence. Some would argue that the voices of the excluded should be included in a larger civil dialogue model, including NGOs and other groups who may have a stake in the debates that take place at the ILO. But should these groups have a place at the ILO?


Such thinking poses considerable issues for both the ILO and employers. Would employers like to be promoting and defending their interests in an ILO where non-relevant actors were also involved in articulating their demands and interests in areas of direct concern to business? The following years will require employers to think seriously about how to approach this changing environment and how to establish alliances and relationships with appropriate and representative actors. To date, there has been no reason for the IOE to change its current view that dialogue should take place between the parties that are accountable for following through on the outcomes of the discussions that take place at the ILO. The parties with these accountabilities are governments, workers and employers.