Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on human resource management and labor relations: Social dialogue for the new global era

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the global economy (SotoAcosta, 2020), which has been further compounded by the rapid technological advancements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, leading to the disruption and restructuring of many established professions and industries (Bonilla-Molina, 2020). This has resulted in a significant shift for all socioeconomic entities worldwide (Koutroukis et al., 2022; Marinov & Marinova, 2021), including the labor market, which has been greatly impacted (Dhakal et al., 2021; Eaton & Heckscher, 2021; Pacheco et al., 2022). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become evident that further research is required to comprehensively understand the profound changes taking place in the workforce. The purpose of this conceptual essay is to examine the alterations that have occurred in human resources and employment relations due to the pandemic (Jaakkola, 2020). It also proposes the concept of social dialogue as a means of facilitating the necessary organizational reforms. With the emergence of structural changes in labor relations, the objective is to establish whether Social Dialogue (SD) is a critical factor for the future growth of all socioeconomic organizations that have been affected by the crisis, and to draw definitive conclusions.