The main messages that this project deliver beyond the state of the art are the following:
1) Labour law and environmental law have developed in silos, but in reality these areas do interact. Lack of coordination between labour law and environmental law risks externalising the costs of regulation over the one or the other “fictitious commodity”, thus putting labour and the environment in competition (e.g. cost-based competition or jobs vs. environment dilemma). Systematic review of EU legislation shows that, despite appearance, the two normative and policy domains relate to each other, and early examples of “workers’ environmental rights” exist. Workers’ environmental rights seek to advance labour sustainability in a way that is compatible with ecological limits and environmental preservation, and rights that seek to advance environmental sustainability while ensuring labour protection and justice. The existence of workers’ environmental rights is vital to advance a progressive interpretation of the principle of sustainable development – one in which the normative claims for labour and environmental justice are construed in solidarity.
2) The transition away from fossil-fuels is not to be seen as a societal goal beyond the ontology of labour law and industrial relations; It is inherently consistent with the interest of workers and organised labour. Sustainability of working conditions depends largely on organised labour’s access to, and control over, the natural, energy resources on which workers’ livelihoods depend. While the possibility of labour control over the mining and distribution of coal has favoured the development of democratic institutions and welfare state in Western jurisdictions and in recently developed economies in the so-called Global South, ‘petro-capitalism’ and the political economy of nuclear energy have contributed to the dismantling of internal labour markets and to the crisis of classical labour law and industrial relations institutions. In contrast to oil and nuclear power, renewable energy sources could favour the transition from an extractive economic model to one that is generative and participatory: by democratising the political and economic power of energy, renewables might be able to better serve human welfare, labour and the environment.
3) Some institutions are already pointing in the direction of achieving labour and environmental justice simultaneously. Along with renewable energy communities, collaborative commons are notable examples: from the self-management of cultural and urban spaces to the co-housing experiences, and the free software and makers’ movement, collaborative commons involve collective action that establishes juridical spaces, institutions, and norms of polycentric governance of complex socioeconomic systems. Collaborative commons, and their grassroots normativity, are leading a renewed, more effective, and far more convincing Twenty-first century response to problems of labour and environmental justice. A response that retraces, under modern conditions, the early forms of solidarity that unions had promoted at the onset of industrial capitalism.
4) The contribution of pension funds in harnessing the power of finance to achieve sustainability is a further institutional example on how labour and environmental justice can be pursued simultaneously. Billions in workers’ contribution to the pension system are currently invested to advance social and environmental sustainability. However, despite positive developments, successful cases remain infrequent and good practices can hardly be generalised. Beyond the meagre quantitative incidence, evidence suggests that commitments taken by pension funds do not necessarily result in making their financial flows truly consistent with social goals and with the need to address the climate emergency. Greater activism, voice and social control by workers and trade unions in the field of sustainable finance would be welcome in this respect. Organised labour should reclaim power to control how pension fund investments are implemented in the real economy, to make sure that – in addition to improving the financial capacity of retirement institutions – they actually contribute to achieving social and environmental justice.
