Sectoral Social Dialogue
Sectoral social dialogue confines itself to industry specific issues and takes place between the European social partner organisations in each industry.
On the employers’ side the participants in the European insurance industry social dialogue are the umbrella organisations Insurance Europe (European Insurance and Reinsurance Federation), BIPAR (European Federation of Insurance Intermediaries) and AMICE (Association of Mutual Insurers and Insurance Cooperatives in Europe), and on the employees’ side the European services sector trade union UNI Europa. The AGV represents the interests of its members through the Insurance Europe Social Dialogue Platform, whose members conduct negotiations with UNI Europa. The current chairman of the Platform is Sebastian Hopfner, the deputy chief executive of the AGV.
Social dialogue in the insurance industry has existed since 2001. In May 2004, it was temporarily suspended due to divergent views on the legal character of a joint statement on further vocational training and it then resumed in September 2007.
The intensive discussions which followed the reintroduction of the dialogue resulted in the formulation and adoption of the 2010 joint statement on demography. The ongoing demography project also led to the publication of the 2012 brochure concerning the demographic challenges in the insurance industry. The publication of this brochure was highly-valued by the European Commission. More information about the European social partners’ demography project can be found here.
A further key result of the dialogue between the insurance industry’s European social partners is the conclusion of a joint statement on telework in 2015. This was under negotiation for more than two years and is based on the 2002 signed declaration of the social partners at inter-sectoral level. The statement focusses on telework from an industry perspective. In concluding this statement the social partners are giving a clear signal which improves the image of the industry as an attractive career choice.