The European Framework Agreement on Digitalisation: a Whiter Shade of Pale?

Abstract

This article analyses the recent European Social Partners’ framework agreement on digitalisation. After contextualising the agreement as an element of European Social Dialogue, it reconstructs its objectives and its main contents. The measures proposed are commented in the light of the broader policy initiatives undertaken by the European institutions on the topic. The procedural approach and the “mainstreaming” of industrial relations practices in all the stages related to the implementation of digital technologies in the workplace are identified as the most promising innovations introduced by the agreement. The general implications for industrial relations practices are finally discussed, with a particular reference to the respective roles and the mutual relationship of employee involvement schemes and collective bargaining.