Two years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, social dialogue continues to make a significant contribution to helping economies recover. Managing the crisis led many governments to rely on tripartite social dialogue to develop the policies that would mitigate the negative impact of the pandemic on the economy and the labour market. This was borne out by the intensification of activities by national social dialogue institutions and by the agreements signed in many countries. In 2021, tripartite social dialogue shifted its focus from crisis mitigation measures to recovery and issues such as minimum wages and the green transition. Collective bargaining shows strong signs of recovery from the impact of the pandemic. In most countries, the number of collective agreements signed increased during 2021 but without reaching pre-crisis levels. Moreover, issues related to the COVID-19 crisis are lessening in importance in collective agreements compared to more traditional topics. The issue of wage increases in a context of growing inflation is becoming a major challenge for the next rounds of negotiations.
Authors
- Published in
- Ireland
- Reference no
- EF22039
