Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI) and European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) have partnered to establish the ETUI-CELSI Covid-19 observatory.

The goals of the observatory are:

To fill in identified gaps and gather data about selected policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemics;

To enhance our understanding of the policies adopted in the context of welfare states, labour markets, employment relations and macroeconomic policy frameworks;

To enable and promote the study and evaluation of their economic and social impact; and

To effectively disseminate this knowledge to the relevant stakeholders, including trade unions, employers’ representatives, policy makers, and interested professionals.

The activities of the observatory will include in-house and commissioned research on national policy responses to the pandemic across Europe in areas of strategic interest for the trade unions, the monitoring and dissemination of knowledge produced in academic and other research institutions and the building and maintenance of networks of national experts to support the above objectives and activities. The network will, therefore, include experts from different countries with relevant expertise and adequate capacity to answer questions on areas of economic policies, labour market developments and employment relations.

The COVID-19 Observatory and its network of country correspondents will lay foundations for critical reflection on and evaluation of the policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such research will contribute to our understanding policy making during crises but will also enable policy-oriented research and the formulation of policy implications.

The project will complement and follow up on several CELSI activities related to the Covid-19 pandemic:

CELSI Covid-19 Policy Response Inquiry (COPReQ) mapping out data about policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in the EU and several non-EU countries since March 2020. The first results of this initiative are presented in the Policy Brief No. 13 prepared by CELSI experts Martin Kahanec, Monika Martišková and Monika Lichá. For further information about the COPReQ database, please visit https://celsi.sk/en/projects/detail/168/

Using data from the COPReQ database, CELSI contributes to the Covid-19 WageIndicator project on the “Living and Working Conditions in the Corona Crisis”. Data are available here.

A series of roundtable discussions (March - April 2020) with representatives of trade unions and employer’s associations as well as leading policy experts and epidemiologists in Slovakia initiated and organized by CELSI to facilitate discussions among social partners about policy responses to the pandemic, including (1) policy instruments addressing the situation of the most vulnerable groups of workers and employers, (2) arrangements and protocols to minimize health risks at the workplace, and (3) short- and medium-term policy proposals to alleviate the impacts of the crisis and create conditions for post-crisis recovery.