During the first reporting period, the FUTOURWORK project successfully established its scientific, methodological, and analytical foundations, enabling the systematic investigation of worker well-being, social dialogue, and digital transformation in the tourism and hospitality (T&H) sector.
An achievement has been the development of a conceptual framework (WP1), integrating perspectives from social sciences and humanities to analyse the interrelations between worker well-being, digitalisation, and distributional dynamics. This framework provides the theoretical backbone for all subsequent research activities.
Substantial progress has been made in empirical data preparation. A comprehensive cross-national survey instrument (WP2) has been designed, piloted, and validated across six countries. The survey captures multiple dimensions of employment conditions, precarity, social dialogue, discrimination, and well-being, and constitutes a major scientific output that will enable large-scale comparative analysis in the next phase.
In parallel, significant qualitative data collection has been carried out (WP3), including the development of harmonised research tools and the completion of 50 stakeholder interviews across participating countries. These interviews provide early insights into the impacts of digitalisation, including algorithmic management, on working conditions and worker representation.
Further analytical advancements have been achieved in the mapping and assessment of industrial relations systems and social dialogue mechanisms through an analytical grid (WP4), as well as in the investigation of legal frameworks and distributional costs affecting trade union activities and collective bargaining (WP5). These activities have resulted in analytical tools and initial findings that contribute to understanding structural barriers to worker representation, particularly for non-standard and platform workers.
In addition, preparatory work has been undertaken in WP6 to identify key legal areas and protection mechanisms, laying the groundwork for the development of practical legal resources for workers in later stages of the project.
Within the first 15 months, the project has produced significant scientific outputs, including validated research instruments, qualitative datasets, conceptual and analytical frameworks, and comparative methodologies. These achievements provide an integrated evidence base for the next phase of the project, which will focus on large-scale primary data collection (WP2, WP4), further analysis (WP1, WP5, WP6), and the development of policy-relevant solutions (WP7).
