Trade unions and the digitalisation of admin work in public services: An international comparative analysis of the hospital sector

Research on digitalisation in the public sector has largely overlooked trade unions or found mainly top-down change and limited involvement. This article focuses on unions representing admin workers in hospitals in Norway and the devolved nations of the UK. Drawing upon interviews in two unions, it offers a novel analysis of their involvement and influence in digitalisation, emphasising the interrelationships between union power and forms of political governance at multiple levels. The findings underline the enduring role of national systems, but with regions and devolved nations offering distinct patterns of union influence, and reveal some promising cases in Norway and Scotland.