Peak-level social dialogue and COVID-19: The European experience

This report outlines the role social dialogue played in designing response measures to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through six country case studies, it shows the value of social dialogue in times of crisis, and the pitfalls when dialogue did not take place.

The report highlights the need for peak-level social dialogue in all its forms: as a means to complement institutions of representative democracy, notably governmental and parliamentary processes of policy- and law-making, and as a means to improve the efficiency and legitimacy of these processes particularly during crisis periods. The crisis also illustrated the value of broadening the thematic scope of social dialogue to include all aspects that affect employers and workers as the actors of the real economy.

The examples of Denmark, France, Greece, Lithuania, North Macedonia and the Russian Federation show the many different facets - thematically and institutionally - of peak-level social dialogue in times of crisis.