IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/labour/v40y2026i3p321-342.html

Industrial Relations and Working From Home in Germany During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Laszlo Goerke
  • Markus M. Grabka
  • Viola Hilbert
  • Yue Huang

Abstract

We investigate the role of industrial relations for working from home during and after the COVID‐19 pandemic in Germany. Using data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel (SOEP) for the years 2020 to 2023 and a special COVID sample (SOEP‐CoV) for 2020 and 2021, we examine how collective bargaining and plant‐level co‐determination are associated with the incidence and frequency of working from home. Controlling for worker, firm, occupation, and industry characteristics, we find that employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement are less likely to work from home and do so less frequently than uncovered employees. In contrast, the incidence and frequency of working from home are positively associated with the presence of a works council.

Suggested Citation

  • Laszlo Goerke & Markus M. Grabka & Viola Hilbert & Yue Huang, 2026. "Industrial Relations and Working From Home in Germany During the COVID‐19 Pandemic," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 40(3), pages 321-342, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:40:y:2026:i:3:p:321-342
    DOI: 10.1111/labr.70020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/labr.70020
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/labr.70020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:40:y:2026:i:3:p:321-342. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csrotit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.