Eurofound: AI has become a subject of collective bargaining

Published: October 31, 2025

Fed by its network of correspondents, Eurofound published, on 26 September 2025, a study about the emergence of AI as a subject of collective bargaining. The report analyses the various levels of social dialogue that have approached the AI topic: European cross-industry social dialogue on digitalisation; European sectoral social dialogue, particularly in the banking and insurance sectors; and cross-industry dialogue at national level, such as the Italian cross-sector agreement of 15 April 2024, which amended the national collective agreement covering commerce and some services.
The text stipulates that companies must create two new roles in charge of managing and coordinating the introduction of artificial intelligence tools within the company, in a constructive and responsible way. The report also takes examples from sectoral social dialogue at national level (such as in the context of temporary employment contract for banks and insurance companies in Belgium) and company agreements, notably that of the Hilfr cleaning platform and the 3F trade union. Moreover, « At multinational company level, more and more European works councils are also developing initiatives to provide a framework for the use of AI and its impact on working conditions », points out Peter Kerckhofs, senior researcher at Eurofound, for whom AI appears as « an increasingly important phenomenon in social dialogue and an emerging new field of industrial relations research. ».

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