Corporate social responsibility within the European sectoral social dialogue

This article considers how European sectoral social partners have tackled and promoted the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and to what extent their common actions have given CSR a tangible and practical form. After reviewing sectoral social dialogue and trade unions’ attitudes to CSR, the authors report on research into the activities of sectoral social dialogue committees. The research shows that many of the sectoral social dialogue committees, whether they consider themselves to be active or not on CSR, have been grappling with the core issues raised by the concept over a number of years. The development of the European institutional debate on CSR has clearly led to the ‘redefinition’ of activities carried out in the framework of the sectoral social dialogue, in some cases offering new impetus to common actions and broadening the scope of debate, while in other cases offering ‘old wine in new bottles'. This article further analyses the specific activities of the sectoral social dialogue committees in the sugar sector.