The collection of data on trade union membership, on the coverage of collective bargaining and on strikes and lockouts provides governments and social partners with information enabling them to better understand the evolution of trends in industrial relations, with a view to adopting policies that promote collective bargaining and sound industrial relations; they also enable those policies to be evaluated.

This guidebook will support ILO’s tripartite constituents in the collection of that data and contribute to improvements in its quality and comparability. It also provides insights regarding the data sources that can be used as well as examples from countries that already collect such data.