Who cares for care workers? Industrial relations and the care trilemma in Europe

This introductory article to the Special Issue ‘Social Dialogue in Care Services’ examines how European countries have addressed the ‘care trilemma’ – balancing service coverage, fiscal constraints, and job quality – in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and long-term care (LTC). Despite the expansion of care services across Europe over the past two decades, labour shortages have become widespread. Building on the care trilemma framework, the article investigates the institutional determinants of this paradox and the role of industrial relations in shaping labour market outcomes in the care sector. The analysis combines quantitative evidence from 22 European countries with qualitative insights from seven country case studies presented in this Special Issue. The findings show that most countries have addressed the care trilemma through ‘low road’ strategies: increases in public expenditure and service coverage have often been accompanied by stagnating or deteriorating job quality, reflected in low wages and high work intensity. Overall, the article shows that variations in the resolution of the care trilemma are explained less by levels of public expenditure alone than by the institutional configuration of industrial relations systems and care policy legacies shaping labour regulation in the sector.