Speaker
Description
The pandemic has contributed to a strong spread of remote work (Eurofound, 2020) together with connected risks, in particular psycho-social risks related to the use of technologies in unconventional working environments (Popma, 2013). During the pandemic, observations in this regard have grown (Rigotti et al., 2020), identifying the main psychosocial consequences of a widespread and prolonged use of remote work in the loneliness of workers and other psychological deseases (Eurofound, 2020; Buomprisco et al., 2021) and in the increase of working hours and workload (Fana et al., 2020; Tresierra, Pozo, 2020). In several European countries the social partners have signed collective agreements at national level aimed at regulating remote work, sometimes (as in the Spanish case) leading to legislative reform. But also an analysis of the firm-level bargaining shows that in several cases remote working has been governed not only unilaterally (Belzunugui-Eraso, Erro-Garces, 2020; Dagnino et al., 2020). The article focuses, with a comparative approach (considering Spain, France, Italy), on the case of the multinational company Danone, analyzing agreements, internal surveys and interviews too managers and trade unionists, with regard to how industrial relations at firm-level were able to manage remote working in the emergency phase, especially about psycho-social risks connected to it. This analyzing if and how the different national institutional settings impact on firm-level bargaining decisions showing that these, though bargaining coordination (Traxler, 1995; Burroni et al., 2020; Molina, Godino, 2020) between national agreement asking for firm-level agreement in this specific issue, were more efficient and timely that national legislation.
