Enhancing social partners’ capacity and social dialogue in the new world of work: The case of Spain

In this chapter we explore the role of social dialogue in addressing some of the most important challenges facing industrial relations institutions and actors in Spain, and how to enhance social partners’ capacity to face them. Social partners are well aware of the need to strengthen a number of capacities in order to be able to provide effective responses based on social dialogue. Enlarging the membership base is considered key from the trade union side, though no clear strategy has been developed so far. In the case of employer organizations, there are emerging issues in relation to determining representativeness, especially for new employer organizations. Finally, the chapter shows how, despite different perceptions on the main problems arising from digitalization and the ways to address them, trade unions and employers are building a shared space for autonomously regulating platform work through social dialogue.