ValueFacturing SMEs
Project name: ValueFacturing SMEs – Fostering SMEs Competitiveness in Manufacturing GVCs through Social Dialogue
Duration: 24 months (01.09.2023-31.08.2025)
The specific objective: ValueFacturing SMEs aims at (1) filling a gap in research regarding working conditions in GVCs, (2) delivering tailored training both for companies -and their organizations- and trade unionists, (3) while proposing concrete solutions and policy recommendations to support quality production standards within the manufacturing sector enabled by effective bargaining practices and social dialogue.
Objectives of the program:
- Identify the factors that can foster/hinder SME participation in global value chains;
- Considering Italy as the benchmark country, illustrate the positioning of Italian SMEs in global value chains, peculiar characteristics of the productive sector, and industrial relations system (focus on IRs for value chains: e.g., district/industry bargaining, bargaining on quality work/training and impact on competitiveness and innovation etc.);
- Frame the role of social dialogue and collective bargaining in the governance of global value chains concerning the manufacturing sector in target countries (IT, AL, HU);
- Identify and discuss supranational (European and non-European) and national initiatives on governance of global value chains through social dialogue and collective bargaining;
- Deliver a decalogue containing procedures and guidelines for social dialogue (potentially replicable in contexts other than the Italian and target countries) to support quality labor markets and competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs.
Lead Partner: CONFIMI INDUSTRIA – CONFEDERAZIONE DELL’INDUSTRIA
MANIFATTURIERA ITALIANA E DELL’IMPRES PRIVATA
Other Partners:
CONFIMI INDUSTRIA DIGITALE (Italy)
FIM CISL LOMBARDIA (Italy)
FONDAZIONE ADAPT (Italy)
ADAPT ASSOCIAZIONE PER GLI STUDI INTERNAZIONALI E
COMPARATI SUL DIRITTO DEL LAVORO E SULLE RELAZIONI
INDUSTRIALI (Italy)
EUROPEAN DIGITAL SME ALLIANCE (Belgium)
BUDAPESTI KERESKEDELMI ES IPARKAMARA (Hungary)
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY TIRANA
Project summary:
The main goal of the ValueFacturing SMEs project is to promote the contribution of sectoral social dialogue practices at national and European level to make Europe (and its individual Member States) “the most attractive place to start a small business, make it grow and scale up in the single market” (European Commission 2020), this also considering unfolding the full potential of SMEs to address the digital and environmental challenges in place.
To sum up, alongside the delivery of an innovative multilingual Decalogue containing practical procedures and guidelines for social dialogue at company, sectoral, and European levels -namely collective bargaining initiatives (potentially replicable in contexts other than the Italian and target countries ones) to support quality labor markets and foster the competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs within GVCs, ValueFacturing SMEs aims also to facilitate dialogue between employers’ organizations (in a broad sense, thus including interest groupings like chambers of commerce) and trade unions in national contexts where industrial relations are more fragile (both in terms of trade union membership and collective bargaining coverage), to increase and improve SMEs advantage from the quality and effective sectoral social dialogue strategies designed and implemented by well-trained business side and workers’ representatives.
Importance of the project:
The main objective of the project is to develop standardized procedures and guidelines for social dialogue (potentially replicable in contexts other than the Italian and target countries) to support quality labor markets and competitiveness of manufacturing SMEs and their positioning in GVCs. At the same time, starting from target national experiences, we intend to contribute to social dialogue, not only national but also European, by bringing the specific issues addressed in the project to the attention of the social partners involved, as well as visions, voices, and proposals from a bottom-up perspective. To achieve its objectives, the project follows a three-phase process: research; roundtables and training; exchange, elaboration of a decalogue, and dissemination. The three phases are linked and integrated: the results of each phase feed the subsequent ones.
The ValueFacturing SMEs Consortium
The ValueFacturing SMEs Consortium building is coherent with project objectives and structure and meets the following criteria: a) it follows the sectoral and territorial approach by involving social partners and interest groupings from a specific sector (manufacturing and advanced manufacturing) and based in strategic countries; (b) its BEN and AP can involve relevant stakeholders at the national level while Fondazione ADAPT and ADAPT together with DSME and Industri ALL Europe will help to foster the EU dimension of the project; (c) its BEN has already carried out (or are committed to, since as for their statute, mission, and previous experiences) research and dissemination activities and delivered training content in the sector; (d) its Partners work in a structured and continuous way.
The choice of partners from Albania and Hungary followed on the one hand, the criterion of collaborations already in place between COO, CCIT and BCCI and, on the other, the possibility of enabling a quality dialogue between interest groupings (chambers of commerce) and trade union federations (VASAS, FSPISH) in two territorial contexts characterized by a preponderance of SMEs but also of fragile industrial relations (especially at company level in small enterprises. where the risk of displacement of small and medium-sized enterprises and the difficulty of access to and governance of GVCs and sustainable and quality labor markets is particularly high.
Specific objectives:
The specific objectives of ValueFacturing SMEs include:
- To research and analyze the main characteristics of the positioning of Italian manufacturing SMEs in the dynamics of global value and supply, especially about the working conditions, and to compare it with those of manufacturing SMEs in other European countries, through a documentary search and interviews with relevant actors;
- To research and analyze the contribution that social dialogue and collective bargaining bring to the governance of GVCs and supply chains, to the construction of sustainable labor markets, and the enhancement and recognition of the Italian productive identity;
- To train relevant European MS and EU candidate countries’ stakeholders on the role of social dialogue and collective bargaining for the inclusion of SMEs in GVCs, through the organization of 3 thematic workshops (national level) in the countries involved in the project and Brussels (4th workshop, transnational level);
- To collect input from relevant stakeholders on the topic of the project during roundtables in the context of the abovementioned workshops;
- To build and circulate, for the benefit of social partners, European institutions, and relevant stakeholders, a decalogue of factors and procedures that support decent and quality labor markets in SMEs and their impact on the quality of manufacturing production.
- To share information and best practices among project partners and disseminate results to a much wider audience thanks to the support of associate partners.
The project is supported by the Erasmus Plus Program, under SOCPL-2022-SOC-DIALOG call.
Project coordinator: Aris Tasho Email aris_tasho@cci.al
