Tender Specifications

Expert work to support the project:

“Strengthen Social Dialogue to Improve Sustainable practices in the European Extractive Industries”.

The project partners will publish the call on their respective websites (IndustriAll European Trade Union & Euromines) on the 13 November 2023. The deadline for submission of bids is 13 December 2023 at noon (12.00).

1. Context of the project IndustriAll European trade union (industriAll Europe) and Euromines have engaged in an EU funded project aiming at Strengthening Social Dialogue to Improve Sustainable practices in the European Extractive Industries.

Mineral raw materials are today more crucial than ever in Europe to face the ecological and digital transition. They are vital for key industrial and strategic value chains in Europe as they are essential for the manufacture of the green technologies that will enable Europe to meet its climate objectives.

The European Green Deal commits to a climate-neutral economy by 2050 and the need for raw materials to facilitate this energy transition is huge and in constant evolution. But Europe is currently highly dependent on other countries for certain key mineral raw materials, questioning its autonomy but also in some ways, the possibility of the transition itself.

Therefore, the European Commission has adopted a series of initiatives relevant to mineral raw materials, including some concrete recommendations to tackle these strategic dependencies and develop its industrial policy. Alongside a strong circular economy, domestic extraction will have a key role to play in this regard. However, European extractive industries face different challenges in order to move in this direction, including some occasional strong local opposition due to environmental and social concerns. The European Commission has therefore launched initiatives to highlight and strengthen the message that within the EU, sustainable and responsible domestic sourcing and processing of raw materials is taking place. A link has also been made to deliver the Just Transition in former and transitioning coal and non-carbon mining regions in Europe, with the development of new European domestic extraction activities in these regions.

The social partners of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Extractive Industries (SSDCEI) are convinced that social dialogue initiatives can help to secure responsible and sustainable raw materials and that they have a role to play in the Just Transition that Europe is currently facing. There is a broad relevance and acceptance of sustainability for policy development and initiatives or projects, but the social dimension of these is sometimes missing. Therefore, this project will help to complement and build opportunities highlighting the challenges and benefits of social dialogue in the European extractive industries’ activities towards more sustainability. Based on this, the projectwill help to strengthen social dialogue and improve the social dimension of sustainable practices in the European extractive industries. Concretely, this project will identity examples of how sustainable mining has been developed and social acceptance built, with the help of social dialogue initiatives at European, national, sectoral and company level.

2. Outline of the overall project in which the work of the expert will be included The project will be implemented over 2 years, starting on 1st November 2023 and ending on 31 October 2025.

The project will be carried out with the financial support by the European Commission, DG EMPL, under the contract number 101102326 — SODISEES — SOCPL-2022-SOC-DIALOG.

The project aims to highlight the challenges and benefits of social dialogue in the European extractive industries’ activities towards more sustainability. Therefore, there is a clear need to have an updated diagnostic report on the initiatives and best practices for social dialogue on sustainable raw materials across Europe, which will also identify the main challenges. There will be a need to discuss the findings with the relevant stakeholders (social partners) and to use an appropriate tool to disseminate these in order to strengthen the capacity of the social partners to intervene in public debates on these matters.

The project will consist of the following elements to achieve its objectives:

• A report to identify all relevant current and future initiatives and best practices of social dialogue on sustainable raw materials in specific areas that are the most important for social dialogue discussions: working conditions (including skills), health and safety at work and job transition. All these areas will also be approached with a gender perspective. This report will be based on desk research who will assess the current state of play of sustainable raw materials in Europe, mapping and collection of examples via desk research, qualitative interviews, and complemented by the workshops.
• A kick-off event and three workshops in three different regions, which will help to feed the report and also strengthen the capacity of European and national social partners to benefit social dialogue in improving sustainable raw materials. The workshops will focus specifically on three topics: 1) working conditions (including reskilling and upskilling) 2) health and safety at work 3) job transition that will be further investigated and developed. The workshops will gather the social partners from the regions, but also from other identified regions, to exchange about the different challenges.
• The conception of a toolkit and communication materials based on the report to create a tailor-made toolkit and a website (on a participant’s website) to communicate, disseminate and promote social dialogue actions for sustainable raw material extraction to policy makers, social partners and company representatives (from large to small), in order to equip them to be able to take part in the debate
• The final dissemination based on the presentation and dissemination of collection and analysis of best practices of social dialogues in sustainable raw materials extraction. Final conference aims to present and discuss the outcomes of the project with policy makers. It will contribute to the European debates and policies on sustainable practices in the European extractive industries.The project is expected to generate positive changes to the role of social dialogue to improve sustainable mining in Europe, as follows:
• Promoting and strengthening the role of social partners in reinforcing sustainable raw material extraction
• Strengthening synergies and exchanges between national and European social partners
• Increase in the cooperation between employers and employees’ organisations with the focus on the development of sustainable activities in the extractive industries
• Transfer of knowledge from large to small companies and vice-versa
• Reinforcement of the image and public perception of the extractive industries
• Promotion of the sector as a contributor to sustainable development in Europe and a leader in innovation
• Enhancement of the understanding of the challenges of sustainable raw material extraction in Europe (including the role of social dialogue)
• Building of a European database of social dialogue best practices, challenges, and opportunities for sustainable raw materials at European, national, sectoral and company level.

3. Work plan of the overall project in which the work of the expert will be included

The project will be implemented in five stages:

The first stage will start with the kick-off activities: setting up of the Steering Committee and first meeting to pave the way for the implementation of the project. It will be followed by the tendering for external expertise and the selection of the expert for the data collection and analysis.

The second phase is dedicated to the collection of examples of best practices of social dialogue in European sustainable extractive industries and the analytical work of the expert.

• A kick-off event will be held to present the project and its orientation and launch the research on good practices.
• The external consultant will begin the data collection via desk research and interviews.
• The Steering Committee will discuss and prepare the three workshops.
• The three workshops will be held to examine the role of social dialogue in sustainable and responsible domestic extraction and collect data and present some concrete examples in the different regions (Nordic countries, South, East)
• The report will be published.

The third phase consists of the development of a toolkit of best practices and communication materials based on the findings of the report.

The fourth phase is dedicated to dissemination and the final conference. The conference will be the occasion to present findings and tools with a wider audience: participants fro m the social partners organisations, representatives of the EU institutions (European Commission, European Parliament, national authorities, etc. ).

The fifth stage will see the compilation of all the communication materials and reports, dissemination via different channels, evaluation with the Steering Committee and decisions on follow-up activities.

4. Tasks to be performed by the subcontractor

Given the information around the project outlined above, the subcontractor is required to develop a research and deliver a report to identify the social pilar of sustainable extractive industries and how social dialogue help to achieve this. The report will map relevant initiatives and best practices of social dialogue on sustainable raw materials in three specific areas that are the most important for social dialogue discussions: working conditions (including skills), health and safety at work and job transition, each time at the European, national, sectoral and company level. This report will be based on desk research to assess the European extractive industry work towards more social sustainability, mapping and collection of examples via desk research, qualitative interviews, and complemented by the workshops. More specifically, the tasks of the subcontractor will be the following:

• Establish a global assessment of the current and future trends of the extractive industries in Europe as a background for the report
• Establish a global assessment of the social dialogue and industrial relations in the sector
• Identified, with the help of the project’s team, relevant areas of “social sustainability” and how social dialogue can help to achieve this
• Collect, map, analyse and report on examples and good practices of social dialogue initiatives at the company and sectoral level using background information on the role of social dialogue in “sustainable extraction” (desk research and examples/best practices and collection of initiatives)
• These collection and analysis will be based on
  • Desk research
  • Interviews
  • 3 workshops that will be co-organised with the project’s team
• Draft a preliminary report based on this collection and analysis of examples and good practices of social dialogue initiatives
• Draft a final report taking into consideration the review of the preliminary report by the project’s team and the steering committee
• Participate and co-organise the 3 workshops and the final conference
• Participate to the steering committee (3 online meetings by updating steering committee members on the drafting of the report, collecting inputs and updating the report
• Participate in the sectoral social dialogue committee for extractive industry meeting if needed
• Work in close coordination with industriAll Europe and Euromines throughout the project
• Potential identification of recommendations to improve social dialogue practices in the sector 5. Guidance and indications on tasks execution and methodology The research and report have to be produced taking into consideration the aims of the project. For this, the subcontractor will work under the supervision and guidance of the industriAll Europe and Euromines’ project team and the project’s Steering Committee. Task execution shall be in direct and constant contact with industriAll Europe and Euromines ; drafts of the researches and reports shall be revised jointly by Euromines and industriAll Europe before being published.

6. Expertise, experience and skills required

The drafting of the report requires sound and proven expertise in the following fields:

• Expertise on European extractive industry sector and its social dialogue and industrial relations
• Experience in working on European level projects;
• Experience in working with trade unions and employers’ organisations at both European and national level.

Skills required:

• Proven ability to carry out in-depth research
• Proven ability in collecting best practices, analyse them and compile them with good communication style
• Proven research skills, including identifying stakeholders and conducting interviews and collecting good practices;
• High proficiency in English: ability to draft documents and make presentations in English;
• Ability to work within specified deadlines and to respect budgetary limits;
• Availability to participate to meetings of the Steering Committee (online meetings);
• Availably to travel across Europe (travels for 3 workshops and interviews)

7. Payments and standards contracts:

The contract will be drawn up between industriAll Europe and the contractor. A regular contract will be signed, including the description of the activities and conditions included in the present invitation to tender. Terms of payment will be similar to those provided by the European Commission. They will be specified in the contract to be signed.

8. Price:

The maximum funding for this work is EUR 50 050 euros (all taxes and charges included).

Travels and accommodation costs for the major activities (workshops, final conference and travels for the research) will be reimbursed separately by industriAll Europe, upon presentation of justification documents (invoices, boarding passes, tickets) and following EU reimbursement rules.Any logistical costs that occur in the framework of the research are included in the price for expertise.

9. Selection:

The selection of expert will be made on the basis of the following:

• As a basic principle the contract will be awarded to the tender offering best value for money
• CV of the tenderer that demonstrates relevant experience in the area of the project (expertise in social dialogue, expertise in extractive industry sector and industrial relations in the sector)
• Knowledge of the European extractive industry sector
• Knowledge of social dialogue and industrial relations at all level
• Demonstration of expertise including a presentation of a study approach to be included in the bid
• Previous experience and familiarity with the work of (European) Social Partners and European Social Dialogue Committees
• English language proficiency/ability to deliver the project outcomes in proficient English.

10. Award criteria:

The contract will be awarded on the basis of the contractor that submits the bid demonstrating the best value for money taking into account all the selection criteria and no award will be made if the bidders fail to achieve 70% in the evaluation of the bids against the selection criteria.

11. Content and presentation of the bids:

The bids should contain at least two sections:

1. i) Technical proposal

The technical proposal must provide all the information needed for the purpose of awarding the contract, including:

• Specific information covering the technical and professional capacity, as required, in particular:
  • Description of relevant professional experience with emphasis on the specific fields covered by the invitation to tender;
  • Detailed curriculum vitae of key coordinator and of the other team members;
  • A selection of the main works and/or articles published by all the experts involved, in relation to the relevant subjects specified in this tender. Links to publications and previous projects/works sustaining experience are strongly encouraged and appreciated.
  • The detailed list of international partners/networks the applicant is used to work with and the references of the specific related achievements• Specific information concerning the proposed methodology for delivering the tasks listed in part 4.

1. ii) Financial proposal

Prices of the financial proposal must be quoted in euros, including if the sub-contractor is based in a country which is not in the euro-area. As far as the tenderers of those countries are concerned, they cannot change the amount of the bid because of the evolution of the exchange rate. The tenderers choose the exchange rate and assume all risks or opportunities relating to the rate fluctuation.

12. Presentation of the bids:

The bids should be submitted in English to industriAll Europe, Sophie Grenade sophie.grenade@industriall-europe.eu and Euromines, Fernando Sanchez sanchez@euromines.be.

The short-listed candidates may be invited to present their bids to the project’s team composed of the secretariat of Euromines and industriAll Europe.

13. Deadline for submission of the bids

The complete bid should be sent to the above-mentioned e-mail address with a request for confirmation of receipt at the latest on 13 December 2023 at 11:59 hours CET.