70

From the start of the coronavirus health crisis, decisions regarding work and employment—traditional objects of social dialog—were taken by politicians. In this article, we question the place and role of Belgian employers and union representatives in the decisions leading to lockdowns and then ending lockdowns through a chronological analysis (announcement of lockdown, its organization and monitoring, preparation for the ending of lockdown). Based on ten semi-structured interviews with these decision-makers and players from social dialog, at different levels (political, cross-sectoral, sectoral, company) in Belgium, we show how and under which conditions dialog was evaded and then re-established. We then identify the possible lasting traces that this episode could leave on the dynamic of social dialog, in the form of three scenarios: 1) a more partnership-based social dialog; 2) a more agile crisis dialog; 3) an unchanged social dialog.