Brief

Employers and workers negotiating measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, protect livelihoods and support recovery: A review of practice

Briefing note | 03 July 2020
Contact(s): inwork@ilo.org
Crisis responses are effective and foster social cohesion when they are perceived as making equitable demands on all members of society. ILO experience has shown that social dialogue is instrumental in this regard.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a new crisis that has brought unprecedented challenges to the world of work.

The brief reviews how the social partners – employers' and workers’ organizations – have engaged with each other in bipartite social dialogue, including collective bargaining, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. It presents a number of responses, organized by subject that illustrate how bipartite dialogue was used to mitigate the impact of the crisis. It outlines some critical considerations confirmed by the current experiences to bear in mind when fostering the role of bipartite social dialogue.