Aligning efforts: How the social partners are driving a green and just transition

The European Union’s commitment to achieving climate neutrality requires not only bold environmental policies but also strong safeguards for workers and their communities. The green transition is about more than emissions targets – it is about reshaping economies and industries while ensuring that no one is left behind. It must be a just transition. The social partners – employer organisations and trade unions – play a crucial role in balancing climate objectives with social and economic justice. Through social dialogue, collective agreements and partnerships with governments, civil society and other actors, they work to embed fairness in the transition, protecting jobs, improving working conditions, and fostering inclusive decision-making. This article examines EU, national, sectoral, company and tripartite actions that illustrate how the social partners are driving a green and just transition.

At EU level, sectoral social dialogue committees across multiple sectors have adopted texts – joint statements, declarations and joint opinions – that place a just transition at the centre of sustainability strategies. While there are no autonomous framework agreements enforceable yet across Member States, the growing number of sectoral commitments shows a broad consensus: environmental goals must be pursued in tandem with the protection of workers and business preparedness to ensure a balanced approach to the green transition. Examples of these sectoral commitments are listed below.

Agriculture: The social partners highlight the severe risks of climate change – droughts, floods and heat stress – on both crops and workers. Their joint statement calls for socioeconomic impact assessments, resources to prevent job losses, and occupational health protections such as access to safe water and measures against heat-related illnesses.

Education: The European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE) and the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) jointly promote environmental sustainability education at all levels. They stress that providing teachers with training and resources is essential, as education itself is a tool for embedding long-term sustainability values into society.

Gas: IndustriALL, the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) and Eurogas underline the challenge of phasing out fossil fuels without sacrificing fairness. Their 2023 joint opinion highlights the 220,000 workers whose jobs depend on the sector and calls for EU-level framework agreements, collective bargaining and investment in hydrogen and biomethane to secure both decarbonisation and employment.

Railways: The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) underscore the climate advantages offered by rail compared to road transport, but only if supported by long-term infrastructure investment, modern rolling stock, digital innovation and reskilling of the workforce. They also call for regulatory reforms to ensure that rail is competing on a level playing field.

Fisheries: The social partners emphasise the need to sustain both ecosystems and communities. Their joint opinion calls for freezing fishing efforts until 2027, extending environmental target timelines and supporting coastal communities through compensation and retraining measures.

Sugar: The sugar industry’s vulnerability to climate change highlights the risks to both crop yields and jobs. The social partners advocate for a just transition through investment in biomass, renewables and energy efficiency, while involving workers directly in the changes that will occur.

Telecommunications: The social partners stress the importance of reskilling in the face of the twin green and digital transition, while also committing to transparency, inclusive decision-making and sustainability reporting. They see advanced technologies as tools to reduce emissions while fostering new employment opportunities.

Woodworking and furniture: Here, the focus is on the circular bioeconomy. The social partners promote sustainable design, use of renewable materials, carbon sequestration and quality rural jobs. Upskilling workers is presented as essential to meeting EU Forest Strategy goals.

Overall, these joint opinions and declarations put forward by the sectoral social partners at EU level are the expression of their commitment to place the protection of workers and their working conditions, as well as the protection of their communities, at the heart of the green transition. By linking climate neutrality with job protection, health and safety, business sustainability and the principle of social dialogue, the social partners are invested in ensuring a just transition.

Beyond EU-level texts, the national social partners have developed concrete initiatives to manage the implications of the green transition for businesses, workers and their communities. Trade unions have often taken the lead in setting up innovative structures: the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), for example, created a ‘climate office’ to guide workers and representatives through the transition, while Sweden’s IF Metall introduced ‘climate ambassadors’ to spread knowledge within workplaces. These initiatives combine awareness-raising with advocacy for just transition policies.

Unions also form alliances with civil society, academics and non-governmental organisations, broadening the scope of social dialogue to ensure vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, children, pregnant women and those with chronic illnesses, are not excluded. Employer organisations, meanwhile, have set up dedicated working groups and projects related to the issue. Examples include Estonia’s Environment and Responsible Entrepreneurship group and the awareness campaigns run by Malta’s Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry. Together, these initiatives show how the social partners can anchor fairness within national green strategies.

Collective agreements remain one of the most direct ways the social partners can jointly shape the transition while ensuring the protection of workers and competitiveness. While not widespread, important examples illustrate how collective bargaining can anticipate and manage change.

Intersectoral: Spain’s Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC), which runs from 2023 to 2025 and is signed by the peak-level employer organisations and trade unions, includes an entire chapter on the ecological transition, linking training and job creation to EU sustainability goals. Greece’s 2021 national agreement, signed by the six peak-level social partner organisations, commits the signatory parties to jointly monitor upskilling measures for emerging green industries.

Sectoral: French and Finnish agreements take a forward-looking approach by embedding clauses for anticipatory skills development, ensuring that workforce training evolves alongside technological change. Finland’s 2022 chemical sector agreement, for example, requires companies to regularly evaluate worker competencies and provide accessible training while implementing measures to lower emissions and modify their production and service delivery models.

Company: Several company agreements stand out for their depth and innovation. In Italy, the multinational energy company ENI’s 2023 INSIEME protocol introduced a participatory, inclusive model of industrial relations, giving workers a particularly important role in shaping energy transition policies. Also in Italy, the energy utility Enel developed its Futur-e project, which reconverts power plants while offering redeployment, reskilling and early retirement options for affected staff. In Germany, Bosch Mobility’s 2023 agreement secures jobs for 80,000 employees until 2027, guarantees no compulsory redundancies, and increases worker involvement in strategic planning. In France, Sanofi’s 2022 agreement supports long-term career visibility and integrates skills planning into ecological goals.

These agreements illustrate how social dialogue can transform uncertainty into structured pathways for workers that not only support business adaptation but also safeguard workers’ rights.

Some companies go further by directly linking employee pay to sustainability objectives. These examples show how collective bargaining can embed environmental performance into the core of employment relations, aligning company success with sustainability. For instance, in Italy, Saipem’s 2022 Participation Bonus Agreement incorporates emissions reduction metrics alongside productivity and profitability indicators, with unions co-designing and monitoring the scheme. Bonuses can also be converted into welfare benefits, with additional employer contributions encouraging uptake.

In the Hera Group, the 2024 Pact for Good Work integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets to remuneration. Bonuses rise progressively until 2027, while ESG indicators account for up to 70% of managerial objectives. These examples show how company-level negotiations have embedded environmental performance at the core of employment relations, aligning company success with sustainability. Such agreements can be complemented by company remuneration policies for top managers, aligning remuneration and environmental targets to successfully transition to sustainable business models.

In several Member States, governments, trade unions, and employer organisations have signed tripartite agreements to ensure fairness in the green transition.

• Denmark’s 2024 Green Tripartite Agreement allocates €5.7 billion to support sustainable agriculture, while creating local green tripartite bodies to oversee fair implementation.

• Spain’s Just Transition Framework Agreement (2019–2027) for coal regions provides training, job creation and environmental restoration. Evidence suggests that 95% of participants have found new jobs in green sectors.

• Norway’s Climate Partnerships (2023–2024) involve the process industry, the maritime and construction sectors, aiming for major emissions cuts while safeguarding jobs. Funding mechanisms include the state agency Enova, which contributed over NOK 2 billion (approx. €170 million) in 2024 alone to the maritime sector.

• In Poland, sectoral agreements on photovoltaics, biomethane, offshore wind and hydrogen have been concluded under the auspices of the Ministry of Climate and Environment. These are backed by coordination councils and working groups involving the social partners.

• Sweden’s Alliance for a Just Transition brings together 54 organisations, including trade unions, climate groups and the Sami parliament (an indigenous group). It supports action on and awareness of the just transition, and advocates for climate justice, worker protection and indigenous rights.

• Portugal’s 2021 agreement on vocational training and qualifications supports lifelong learning, aiming for 60% adult participation in training each year by 2030 in the context of the green and digital transition.

Partnership agreements involving the state, social partners and sometimes other actors are more likely to be financially well supported with earmarked funds for each activity. Collaborative actions are often embedded in a social partnership model and can include monitoring mechanisms to take corrective measures when needed.

The transition to a climate-neutral Europe is reshaping industries, workplaces and skills, with profound consequences for companies, workers and the communities in which they are located. The social partners have shown through EU sectoral commitments, national initiatives, collective agreements and tripartite pacts that they embrace the green transition goals. Protecting jobs, guaranteeing occupational health and safety, ensuring upskilling, and embedding worker participation in the context of the green transition are recurring priorities. However, they are not yet pervasive across all sectors and all Member States. Comprehensive EU-level framework agreements are still lacking, but the slowly growing body of sectoral-, national- and company-level actions illustrates that the just transition is gradually being shaped by and through social dialogue. Achieving climate neutrality without leaving workers behind requires more cases of this cooperative approach across Europe – anchored in workers’ protection, business preparedness and fairness.