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Contents: 1. Introduction. 2.What do social partners ask for: the EU Framework Agreement on Digitalisation (FAD) 2020. 3.The EU Legal Framework on industrial relations practices in the digital transition prior to the FAD. 4. Any change of approach in the recent regulatory developments? 4.1. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 on Artificial Intelligence. 4.2. Platform Work Directive (EU) 2024/2831. 5. The current scenario: participatory models versus or plus collective bargaining?.
1. Introduction
Work organisation systems are increasingly characterised by the dominance of new digital technologies, which are putting pressure on industrial relations systems at national and supranational level. No one could disagree that “it should be part of Europe’s digitalisation model to draw on the strength of the social partners and the efficiency gains the AI revolution offers while safeguarding workers’ rights”1. In the context of the digital transition, the main challenges facing workers’ representatives and trade unions are to strengthen their rights to information and consultation on the one hand, and to counteract the growing pervasiveness of employer control on the other2. The aim of this article is to explore what kind of synergies actually exist between EU law, participation procedures and collective bargaining to address the current challenges in the world of work due to digitalisation. The most relevant EU secondary legislation – taking into account existing and future sources of regulation – and framework agreements will be considered. The aim is also to check whether the EU is practising what it preaches by strengthening the involvement of the social partners. In other words, this paper aims to examine the role that social partners should be able to play in the digital age.