“After nine months of negotiations between the EU social partners in the gas sector, the employers’ organisation, Eurogas, failed to adopt the Just Transition Agreement reached by the employers’ and trade union delegations that would have guaranteed a Just Transition for the gas workers faced with the massive transformation underway”, deplored the European public service workers’ union EPSU in a statement on Friday 17 May.
The aim of the agreement was to ensure that companies drew up fair transition plans to anticipate the impact of the transformation on jobs and skills, and to provide quality training and job-to-job transitions with the involvement of workers and trade unions.
“IndustriAll Europe [which represents manual and non-manual workers in the metal, chemical, energy, mining, textile, clothing and footwear sectors] and EPSU strongly regret that the good faith in which they had negotiated for nine months was not fully reciprocated by the EU gas sector employers”.
EPSU and IndustriAll Europe are calling on the European Commission to present “a proposal for a Just Transition Directive” without delay.
Negotiations with Eurogas were launched in April 2023. The aim was to come up with concrete measures and actions to ensure a just transition in the gas sector, which employs 220,000 workers. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)