Revisiting ‘low politics’: the geopolitical contours of the EU Work–Life Balance Directive

This paper examines how the tension between supranational integration and far-right nationalism shapes everyday working lives, focusing on the transposition of the European Union Work–Life Balance (WLB) Directive. It addresses a critical gap in Industrial Relations scholarship by exploring the role of social dialogue in mediating this geopolitical fault line during transposition. Through a comparative study of Denmark, Hungary and Italy, the paper investigates how specific WLB provisions – such as leave entitlements and flexible working arrangements – were negotiated. It draws on in-depth interviews with social partner representatives, supplemented by civil society perspectives, which indicate that the strength or weakness of national social dialogue determined how the European Union's vision was received. The robustness of the social dialogue process either tempered nationalist populist discourse or, through its weakness, allowed that discourse to successfully subvert the intended policy outcomes. The analysis reveals a fragmented and uneven implementation of the Directive, with outcomes ranging from WLB provisions above minimum standards in Denmark to active policy subversion in Hungary and Italy. By demonstrating how the WLB Directive became a core area for ideological rivalry, this paper confirms the workplace as not a sphere of ‘low politics’ but an important site of geopolitical struggle.