In an unprecedented context of pandemic and crisis in the labour market, negotiations involving governments and nationwide organisations of employers and workers have contributed to the design and implementation of social, economic and labour policies aimed to counter the impacts of the pandemic on the world of work.

Social dialogue – bipartite or tripartite – helped to shape government responses and opened “space” for further social dialogue at various levels – enterprise, sectoral, national and cross-border – on ways to address the impacts of the crisis and to adjust policy and regulation to the new reality.

Between 1 February 2020 and 31 January 2021, 381 outcomes (such as joint statements and agreements) were reached through social dialogue between governments and national, peak-level or sectoral-level organisations of employers and workers, in 102 countries and territories.

They have been classified under three broad categories, depending on the rationale of outcome measures:

• 133 outcomes in 66 countries and territories aimed at helping workers, businesses and economies to survive the immediate impacts of the pandemic on the world of work (“emergency” outcomes);
• 158 outcomes in 56 countries shaped measures to help them to adjust to the continuing spread of the virus and its economic and social impacts (“adjustment” outcomes);
• 90 outcomes in 39 countries aimed at promoting long-term recovery and resilience (“recovery” outcomes).

Of the 102 countries and territories where social dialogue outcomes were observed, only 17 countries achieved outcomes of all three types.

Countries that relied the most on social dialogue to devise participatory policy responses, were those with strong traditions of social dialogue, notably in Europe.

While most emergency and adjustment outcomes were reached through bipartite social dialogue (82 out of 133 and 95 out of 158, respectively), most recovery outcomes were reached through tripartite social dialogue (51 out of 90), marking an effort by governments to achieve the broadest possible consensus, given the high stakes associated with economic recovery.

Content-wise, emergency and adjustment outcomes contained measures mainly on:

- protecting employment and wages (76 emergency and 85 adjustment outcomes);

- measures on adapting workplace arrangements (48 emergency and 62 adjustment outcomes);

- and measures aimed at strengthening social dialogue (43).

Bipartite social dialogue to adopt emergency and adjustment outcomes – the dominant form of dialogue observed in the early stages of the pandemic – shaped measures mainly related to:

• protecting employment and wages;
• adapting workplace arrangements (notably teleworking policies and regulation);
• strengthening social dialogue (including advocating for greater inclusion of social partners in policymaking).

Recovery-related outcomes reached through social dialogue – less numerous than emergency and adjustment outcomes and reached through tripartite social dialogue – related mainly to:

• protecting employment and wages;
• supporting and sustaining enterprises;
• extending social protection;
• adapting workplace arrangements;
• strengthening social dialogue;
• greening the economy;
• strengthening the economic and political governance of countries.

The Brief shows that urgent policy responses and measures to address the pandemic’s impacts have acted as a unifying theme for the tripartite constituents in the majority of countries and territories. Social dialogue claimed a role both in shaping emergency responses to the COVID-19 crisis and in designing longer-term adjustment and recovery solutions and is now called on to go beyond policy formulation, implementing and monitoring agreed-on measures, promoting long-term reconstruction and resilience.