The Level Playing Field of Hungarian Social Partners before and during COVID-19 Pandemic

For numerous reasons, social dialogue in Hungary generally does not fulfil its role, either on the national, or on the sectoral, or workplace level. Social dialogue as a democratic process is dysfunctional since its institutions and mechanisms are not implemented democratically, and no real dialogue or actual debates take places. Instead, these mechanisms work in a top-down manner, the illiberal state and its central governing bodies expect certain solutions and answers, leaving no scope for a transparent democratic dialogue with the relevant social partners. Against this background, in 2019, we could witness major strike activity in the automotive sector. However, in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hungarian government vindicated full power by adopting the ‘Authorization Act’, which allowed the Government to introduce significant restrictions, practically without any time limit, without any debate in the Parliament, and without any guarantee for swift and effective constitutional review during the pandemic. Our research paper investigates these recent developments in social dialogue using a case study aiming to understand the underlying forces of collective actions organised in the automotive sector. Our research demonstrates that due to the lack of institutional guaranties, social dialogue is very fragile in Hungary, and the epiphenomenal victory in 2019 was a mere reflection on the labour shortage. Our mixed methodology which combines legal and sociological approaches is suitable to examine this complex issue; interviews conducted with representatives of labour and employers providing deep insight to motives and action in the closely circumvented level playing fiel