The Post-COVID-19 Era

Abstract

The repercussions of months of social distancing have affected workers and their representatives. Nearly 25% of workers in Europe had never teleworked before the pandemic. The accelerated adoption of digital technologies and continued remote working required workers' representatives to adapt their ways of working, as well as reassess priorities. By examining three key questions—1) What forms of governance were used to respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis? 2) What topics will gain in importance and which ones may become less important? 3) How will the post-COVID-19 world affect the organization and ways of working of representative bodies?—the authors argue that post-COVID-19 it is imperative to revise governance arrangements to enable representatives to remain effective as the workers' voice. Normative considerations combined with practitioner insights also lead the authors to conclude that the pandemic has the potential to trigger a paradigm shift in organizational participation.