Handling the diverse effects of digitalisation on job quality: technology-positive workers and strong social dialogue in the Danish public sector

The Danish public sector is among the most digitalised in the world, and Denmark therefore serves as a good case for assessing the impact of digitalisation on job quality and the work environment. This Research paper addresses the relationship between digitalisation and job quality through a review of the relevant policies, the existing research literature, a European wide survey and through qualitative research conducted for this project. The qualitative data was collected in three specific sectors – the public administration, hospitals and electricity production and distribution – and emphasises the experiences of public sector workers. First, ten interviews were conducted with sector-level (and a few national-level) worker representatives from the relevant unions. Next, a focus group was conducted in each of the three sectors with workers, to probe their daily experiences of what digitalisation means for job quality and their daily work experience. While the focus groups emphasised the personal experiences of the workers, many of them are shop stewards and hence have a broader perspective on what their co-workers may experience. These data were supplemented by a cross-national European survey, which, however, did not get a very high response rate in Denmark. So, the results from the survey mainly supplement the qualitative data.