A social dialogue can be any communication activity involving social partners

Social partners

The social partners are the trade unions and the employers engaged in social dialogue. The idea of social partnership is strongly founded in many European models of industrial relations and is now adopted across the European Union. At the European interprofessional level, the social partners are...

 intended to influence the arrangement and development of work related issues. In the Marxist, and in the radical leftist discourse in general, the social dialogue is called "class cooperation" or "class collaboration".

These can be direct relations between the social partners themselves ("bipartite") or relations between governmental authorities and the social partners ("tripartite").

Examples of social dialogue activity include mutual information, open discussion, concertation (on-going tripartite dialogue), exchanges of opinions, consultation and negotiation (agreements /common opinions).

European social dialogue is enshrined in the Treaty establishing the European Community (articles 138 and 139; ex 118a and 118b) and it is promoted by the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

as an instrument for a better governance and promotion of social and economic reforms.