Covid-19 and health and safety at work: Trade union dilemmas in Germany, France and Luxembourg (March 2020–December 2021)

Adrien Thomas, Nadja Dörflinger, Karel Yon and Michel Pletschette
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Adrien Thomas: Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research, Luxembourg
Nadja Dörflinger: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health BAuA, Germany
Karel Yon: IDHES, University Paris-Nanterre, National Centre for Scientific Research, France
Michel Pletschette: Department of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Medical Centre of the University of Munich, Germany

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2024, vol. 45, issue 1, 116-137

Abstract: Given the traditional commitment of trade unions to occupational health and safety standards, unions might have been expected to be strongly involved in containing the Covid-19 pandemic. This article focuses on their policy positions at national and sectoral level towards the occupational health and safety measures taken to limit the spread of Covid-19 in Germany, France and Luxembourg from the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 until the surging fourth wave of infections in November–December 2021. The authors’ data show that unions have found it increasingly difficult over the course of the pandemic to develop policy positions in the domain of occupational health and safety that address the variegated situations and needs of their different member groups and that achieve a balance between membership logics and public health considerations.

Keywords: Covid-19; France; Germany; Luxembourg; occupational safety and health (OSH); risk assessment; trade unions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:45:y:2024:i:1:p:116-137

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X221138882

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