At the same time, new challenges have emerged. Many governments have imposed new restrictions on trade union action, particularly strikes. The rise of (temporary and platform) on-demand work across the world challenges established modes of regulating employment relations. Digitalisation leads to changes in job roles and skills requirements, creating new jobs while simultaneously displacing existing ones. Industrial relations actors also confront the need to address the impact of climate change on the world of work. Decarbonisation and tightened climate policies have an impact on jobs in manufacturing and power generation, and require job transitions and reskilling. Rising temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events make it necessary to adapt workplaces, in particular regarding occupational health and safety. Emerging collective actors may take up the issues of digitalisation and climate change either in alliance or in competition with the established trade unions.
The effects of digitalisation and climate change vary among different groups of workers. This risks creating further disparities in working conditions across socio-economic categories, gender, ethnicity and race, raising the issue of the inclusiveness of trade unions, workplace representation bodies and collective bargaining institutions. The electoral successes of the far right across Europe pose the question of trade union action aimed at safeguarding the rights of migrant workers and refugees.
In recent years, there has been a discernible shift in the discourse on industrial relations in Europe. Contentious collective bargaining in response to surging inflation, tighter labour markets leading to a stronger bargaining position for workers, renewed strike activity in many countries and organising drives in the low-wage service sector have been noticeable developments. These changes contrast with the preceding decades marked by the erosion of sectoral collective bargaining and associated institutions.