Collective regulation and the future of work in the digital economy: Insights from comparative employment relations

Abstract

The impact of technological change on employment, inequality and job quality has attracted considerable analysis from both scholars and practitioners. However, less attention has been paid to how digital technologies are changing contemporary workplaces and how workers are responding to these changes. This article reviews recent research from the multidisciplinary comparative employment relations field, with a focus on institutional resilience or change associated with digitalization; and the strategic responses of unions and other worker representatives to these trends. We find that the insights of economists, sociologists and employment relations scholars are complementary, as each addresses a different dimension of technological change and associated worker outcomes. Comparative employment relations researchers are more likely to influence current debates where they both articulate the unique contribution of their multi-method and comparative research methods and aggregate findings beyond single or paired industry and national case studies.

Worker voice and algorithmic management in post-Brexit Britain

“…Mechanisms promoting worker voice, such as collective bargaining, have long played a central role in achieving dignity and decent conditions at work and preventing abuses of managerial power. Seeking to exert collective control over algorithmic management and retaining worker voice in the age of AI are therefore rightly becoming a priority for trade unions and the labour movement (on union responses, see Doellgast and Wagner, 2022).…”

Introduction: what is at stake regarding the collective representation of contingent workers?

“…In this complex scenario, new essential challenges to traditional forms of collective representation and for the defence of social rights have emerged (Gumbrell-McCormick 2011;Bureau and Corsani 2018;Doellgast 2018;Jolly 2018;Brodersen and Martínez 2020). The first and foremost is job fragmentation.…”

‘They tell us after they've decided things’: A cross‐country analysis of unions and digitalisation in retail

“…Consideration is also given to unions' strategic capabilities and resources when dealing with technological change (Lévesque & Murray, 2010). International comparative research that addresses how these different levels interrelate, and which is attuned to both 'structural and agential factors' (Gasparri & Tassinari, 2020. p. 797), can help to unpack the conditions which enable or constrain union influence (Doellgast & Wagner, 2022;Lloyd & Payne, 2021b).…”

“…These single‐country studies point to the importance of national systems of regulation and collective bargaining in enhancing the role of unions in the process of digitalisation. There is though a major gap in international comparative research that addresses the role of unions in different countries and sectors (Doellgast & Wagner, 2022; Kornelakis et al, 2022; Lloyd & Payne, 2021a).…”