Industrial relations and social dialogue
Social partners going digital: Using digital tools and adapting social dialogue processes
Published:
10 December 2021
Research report
Abstract
Digital transformation is changing the world of work. This report looks at how social partners – the actors involved in the regulation of employment relationships – are increasingly adopting technological solutions to improve the services that they provide to their members and facilitate collective bargaining processes. Technological tools offer social partners the opportunity to enhance consultation, engage with their members through digitised processes, improve services and increase networking activities, as well as addressing the issue of membership decline. The findings of this report show that the extent to which the social partners use digital technologies varies greatly across the EU Member States, Norway and the United Kingdom. Provisions in collective agreements on several aspects of digitalisation have been identified in about half of the countries. Through these provisions, social partners encourage their members to boost training on digital skills, ensure fair and safe working conditions and take account of data protection and employee monitoring practices. The European social partners’ autonomous framework agreement on digitalisation has provided inspiration to national-level organisations, and follow-up actions in this regard have the potential to greatly benefit their members.
Key findings
The challenges that social partner organisations face in expanding digital technologies within their own organisations are mainly related to skills, technology and network infrastructure. To address these issues, both sides of industry must update technology and continue to provide training to equip staff and members with digital skills.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of adoption of digital tools, their use is not spread equally among social partner organisations across the EU. To encourage further adoption, the benefits of digitalisation need to be communicated and shared more widely within and across countries.
Digital tools offer trade unions and employer organisations new opportunities to address information gaps and reach out to a wider membership (for instance, platform workers for trade unions), and, in the case of employer organisations, to personalise services for members and promote digitalisation strategies within companies. Targeting support so member organisations develop digital tools is an effective way to address regional disparities in the uptake of digital technologies.
During the pandemic, trade unions and employer organisations tested digital forms of negotiation and collective bargaining that created new efficiencies such as reduced travel costs and greater presence of high-ranking officials and global HR managers in meetings. However, it also emerged that virtual engagements were less effective in building relationships, particularly with regard to collective bargaining.
It is clear that digital technologies will change jobs, business models and the way work is organised, and that the role of social partners in regulating these aspects will be essential to a smooth, fair and inclusive digital transition. Examples of collective agreements show that social partners have prioritised the upskilling and training of the workforce, work organisation, working conditions and the introduction of digital technologies, telework and new forms of work, as well as alleviating the risk of job loss in this transition.
List of tables, and figure
- Table 1: Challenges in the use of digital tools reported by social partner organisations, EU27, Norway and UK
- Table 2: Solutions adopted by social partners to address challenges in the use of digital tools
- Table 3: Examples of sectoral-level collective agreements regulating aspects related to digitalisation
- Table 4: Examples of company-level agreements regulating aspects related to digitalisation
- Figure 1: The use of digital technologies by social partners
- Number of pages
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54
- Reference nº
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EF21005
- ISBN
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978-92-897-2225-4
- Catalogue nº
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TJ-07-21-100-EN-N
- DOI
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10.2806/142194
- Permalink
Cite this publication
Eurofound (2021), Social partners going digital: Using digital tools and adapting social dialogue processes, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.