The main aim of the project was to study collective labour disputes including social partners’ strategies of conflict prevention and resolution in the energy sector in the context of company restructuring in the five project countries: Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain. Specificaly the partnership focused on putting in place the workers’ right to information consultation and participation in the restructuring processes; strengthening the employee-employer dialogue at national and international levels; disseminating the project outputs and outcomes to outreach target groups.
The Participative energy project assumed carrying out the following activities:
* Conducting the fieldwork analysis in the project countries on legislative aspects and practices of collective labour resolution. The methodlogy adpted the following tools: desk research, in-depth intervies, focus groupp, online survey. In the reslut of the fieldwork five country reports were prepared.
* Preparing Conflict Prevention Methodology and Conflict Prevention Manual based on national reseach findings aiming at summarising the key results of the study in comparative perspective and to build social partners capacity for more participation at the company level and facilitate knowledge and experience sharing between employers’ and employees’ representatives by realizing information, consultation and participation rights.
* Results of the fieldwork were discussed during Roundtable discussion (May 2023).
* Providing National Online Trainings to the project partners organisations developing the tools for social dialogue and labour conflicts prevention and resolution included in the Conflict Prevention Manual. It allowed also for peer-learning exchanging practice via group exercises, Q&A and brainstorming sessions, etc.
* To raise the awareness of workers’ and employers’ representatives of energy industry from the project countries on the effective conflict resolution tools, relevant EU regulations contributing to improved effectiveness of worker-participation bodies achieved through implementation of comprehensive communication and dissemination campaign, outreaching the project target groups; increase employee involvement and make a meaningful positive impact on the daily work of the energy sector enterprises in all partner countries. This objective was achieved via International Conference and various dissemination activities.
The main frame for the energy sector in the European Union is currently the European Green Deal policy, which aims to achieve the goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This will mean a series of reforms and transformations in energy companies, which will lead to restructuring processes also with regard to the employment. In addition, other factors – both of internal and external nature - affect companies in the sector - which are not without their impact on working and employment conditions. These include, for example the COVID-19 pandemic, digitisation and automatization. Businesses need to prepare for these changing circumstances and implement an effective change management strategy. The crises may result in different employee reactions. Most often, in the case of deficits in social dialogue, they may take the form of conflicts or even collective labour disputes.
Project conclusions
Overall, it is widely accepted that the first two decades of the 21st century have been a challenging time for industrial relations in the EU, and the institutional pillars of European social models have been weakened – in particular, the key pillars of employer associations, trade union membership and collective bargaining coverage – leading to increased heterogeneity at national level among these pillars (Marginson, 2017). Factors responsible for this decline are increased market and economic integration, globalisation, the monetary union, EU expansion and the global financial crisis – whose impacts have been spread unequally across the EU. These events have increased the pressure to weaken employment protection, liberalise precarious contracts, decentralise collective bargaining and remove extension mechanisms (Hyman, 2018). In short, there has been a general worsening of the position of labour, relative to capital, within the realm of industrial relations but, because these transnational pressures have been spread unevenly across the nations of the EU, factors such as employment security, social benefits and representation in the workplace are now even more dependent on the country where the individual works (Meardi, 2018). Consequently, industrial relations regimes have become more diverse across the EU and the relationships between state, capital and labour at national level have become increasingly important (Marginson, 2017; Hyman, 2018; Meardi, 2018).
European Green Deal, raising costs of living and the COVID-19 pandemic created challenging environment for industrial relations – especially the energy sector in Europe. Achieving climate neutrality by reducing greenhouse gases by 2050 means phasing out of mines as well as other energy processing plants or restructuring. Often, this will mean structural changes for entire local communities and regions that are linked to these mines or energy plants. Currently, workers in the European Union are faced with negotiating agreements to implement decarbonisation policies. Often these negotiations are very difficult and involve many tensions, accompanied by uncertainty about future of the workers, their families and local communities. The prospect of mining and energy plants closing or being significantly restructured is associated with a halt in investment, lowered health and safety standards, halted or reduced training for workers, and less willingness on the part of employers to raise wages. The prospect of transformation affects the gradual deterioration of working conditions. Both unions and employers doubt that the European Green Deal policy has been thoroughly thought out and planned, sometimes resulting in difficult to accept measures e.g.: the phasing out of nuclear energy in some countries (eg. Spain), the premature (over zealous) closure of energy plants (e.g. the: a refinery in Portugal) without providing an adequate package of protection for workers, the phasing out of coal mines in the EU while increasing imports of coal from outside the EU, the attempt to introduce too restrictive regulations on methane levels in mines, which would mean the closure of almost all mines in Poland in a very short time and the collapse of an energy system based on 70% coal combustion, etc.
In this context extensive social dialogue seems to be the necessity to address present tensions and uncertainties, in order to avoid major collective labour disputes. Workers want to contribute to mitigating the negative consequences of the climate crisis, to live in healthy and clean local communities. They also support the development of renewable energy, which will entail the creation of new and possibly better paid jobs. At the same time, they want unionised jobs that provide safe and healthy working conditions and a decent living for their families through wages that are commensurate with their qualifications and the effort they put in. This also applies to new jobs in renewable energy.
Both employers and unions postulate the need for full information and transparency on the energy transition from national governments and EU institutions to ensure predictability for their jobs and businesses. For changes of a structural nature, the transition process must not be chaotic, unplanned, piecemeal or ill-conceived. It should also follow a path of gradual, evolutionary change rather than a shock therapy. Broad and in-depth social dialogue (discussed elsewhere) and extensive public consultation with key stakeholders are crucial in this context. The energy transition process should be co-managed by the social partners.
From the point of view of workers' interests, the content of the transformation agreements reached in social dialogue is crucial. For the transformation to be fair, it must be accompanied by protective policies: training to enable job transitions, job placement, psychological support, decent severance pay in the event of voluntary redundancy or collective dismissal. It is also important that state policies address not only the employability of workers, but the sustainability of entire regions and local communities that will be affected by the transition. No one should be truly left behind – as the European Green Deal assumes.
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