This special collection entitled ‘Green Transition or Social Transformation? Socio-economic Costs and Challenges of Energy Transition for Working People’ is an invitation to further study the role of labour in the energy transition and the impact of the current form of transition on workers’ lives. Above all, however, it raises fundamental questions about the future trajectory, aims, and scope of the transition. It also suggests that it is worth speaking openly not only about technological change but also about systemic change − one that incorporates economic and political dimensions and must accompany the energy revolution. A transition that leaves hierarchical social structures intact, that fails to critique the economic mechanisms exploiting both people and the environment, or that does not challenge existing relations of power which colonise nature and the working classes, is not a transition at all. It is merely ‘old wine in new bottles,’ designed to ensure the further reproduction of the prevailing system and to create new forms of capital accumulation. This collection presents reflections, analyses, and proposals addressing issues often overlooked in the green transition: the concerns of working people, their anxieties over employment and economic security, and a new form of colonisation under the guise of technological changes in the energy sector. The authors suggest, however, progressive solutions that go beyond the status quo, such as a ‘transformative just transition’, labour environmentalism based on the inseparable relationship between labour and nature, and social–ecological development.

Many conceptions of Just Transition focus narrowly on how to create employment opportunities for those in the so called ‘dirty’ industries who are likely to lose their jobs in the transition to sustainability. However, there is an emerging concept of ‘Transformative Just Transition’ (TJT) which emphasises the need to entirely transform our societies in order to achieve justice in this transition. What a TJT should include is still being debated. In this article, I propose that the fundamental element needs to be a redistribution of income and wealth – globally, nationally and locally. This would mean the wealthier would inevitably have to reduce their ecological footprint while those on low incomes could afford to meet their social and environmental needs (healthy food, water and housing; adequate energy and transport; etc). This paper discusses the why and how (e.g. climate reparations, progressive environmental taxation) of redistributing income and wealth in order to achieve a TJT. It particularly focuses on the role of labour unions in achieving the necessary redistribution.

This article critically examines the challenges of trade union “just transition” (JT) policies in the context of the ecological crisis. While JT policies have grown in prominence, especially in the Global North, they do not adequately address the ecological crisis since they focus exclusively on decarbonisation without recognising that Green Growth, by reducing emissions increases environmental destruction created by the extraction of ever more minerals and metals. JT policies are further constrained by national boundaries and by a policy centred on jobs only, without acknowledging the broader needs for dignified lives and a regenerative relationship between labour and nature. Research into workers’ visions for the future shows that workers long for cooperation, democratisation from below, a connection of local and global solidarity, and more time to care for themselves and others. The author suggests that unions could connect with such visions to develop transformative, globally coordinated JT strategies that centre on cooperation and self-determination, allowing them to move away from growth imperatives towards a regenerative economy that centres on care for both, people and nature.

The article advances debates on just transition by addressing both conceptual and practical dimensions of justice and development. It proposes an integrated evaluative framework that bridges justice and development perspectives, which are often treated separately in the literature. – Drawing on the capability approach, the framework links normative evaluation with participatory co-production, thereby supporting the design of more transformative just transition policies. Based on an extensive review of the literature, the article identifies seven dimensions of a comprehensive conception of social-ecological justice – distributive, epistemic, restorative, planetary, intergenerational, ecological, and procedural – and distinguish two ideal types of development – growth-driven development and social-ecological development. We argue that the extent to which the dimensions of justice are realised, both in number and degree, determines the scope and depth of shifts from growth-driven to social-ecological development and thereby shapes the transformative potential of just transition policies. The article applies this framework empirically through an evaluation of the International Labour Organisation’s approach to just transition. By grounding the analysis in a capability-based conception of justice and development, our framework positions co-production as central to processes of transformation that seek to be just. As part of this co-production process, the article calls for a more engaged and ethically grounded scholarship that contributes actively to the collective pursuit of just and sustainable futures.

Despite the proliferation of research, more systematic attempts to trace worker experiences across production networks of renewable energy remain marginal. This limits our potential to offer meaningful insights to guide future political mobilisation and policy measures for organised labour and workers more broadly. As a partial remedy, I provide an initial description of labour processes in wind energy. To do so, I carry out labour regime analysis. The utility of the labour regime framework stems from its ability to help the analyst to understand the labour process better by grounding it into a systematic theoretical framework to capture more effectively how dynamic political economic processes condition workplace outcomes. In my analysis, I highlight how capitals-in-competition within energy production networks facilitate structural conditions that intensify the rate of wind worker exploitation. Critically, the ecological sphere of the labour regime mediates the capital-labour interaction, which helps to explain the significant number of hours and extended timelines expected of wind technicians and those involved on project developments, as project owners push for time intensive schedules to reduce wind turbine downtime. My work also extends labour regime scholarship by arguing that ideational constructions, informed by different spheres of the labour regime, govern the labour process in important ways, which suggests that future studies might more seriously consider how ideational notions of work, such as Gramscian ‘common sense’ expectations, maintain labour regimes. I reason that a combination of these factors, both material and ideational, has made workplace organising in wind difficult.

In the Philippines, bans on the use of plastic bags have been enacted in 489 cities and towns as a means of stemming waste, while proposed legislation for a nationwide prohibition has been pending for several years. The national single-use plastic (SUP) ban is a significant step forward in mitigating plastic pollution and climate change, but it will have economic and employment impacts on firms and workers. This study fills in a gap by estimating the employment impact of a national ban using firm-level data from official surveys. An exploratory labour-centric methodology interrogates workers’ perceptions of a ban through interviews with unionists. The study finds the employment effect to be significant, as 32,000 workers in almost 500 SUP firms will be directly affected, and another 9.000 workers in the midstream plastic industry will be indirectly impacted. Workers have a range of opinions regarding a proposed ban – from opposition because of the expected layoffs to acceptance as a necessary solution to plastic pollution. However, support for a SUP ban is predicated on the existence of alternative employment for affected workers. The study reveals that workers are receptive to a message that integrates both environmental concerns and labour standards. However, there is a serious lack of information dissemination from plastic firms and government agencies about the proposed SUP ban and the necessary adaptation measures to prepare workers for a transition. The economic, sociocultural, and institutional barriers to an effective just transition for SUP workers are substantial but not insurmountable.

This article proposes the examination of the climate politics of labour unions, particularly the strategy of just transition, through the prism of environmental labour studies, an ecosocial approach to labour environmentalism. In the first part, it presents a historical overview in order to highlight how the just energy transition became a central element of labour environmentalism. The paper then examines the double impact of climate politics and just transition on labour environmentalism – narrowing its substantive focus while deepening the intersection of nature and labour within and beyond the workplace. The second part draws on the environmental labour studies approach to propose that labour environmentalism should take into account the inseparable relationship between labour and nature, expand the scope of work and workers, and account for global divisions of labour. In our view, such a programmatic shift will ensure that work and workers are placed centrally within ecosocial politics.

Algorithmic management (AM) is reshaping work in many industries. However, what is done to redress potential risks is little understood. This study explores how trade unions, employers, and government actors assess AM-related occupational safety and health (OSH) risks and their strategies to understand how industrial relations could influence the safety and health of workers managed by digital technologies. Drawing on the Pressure, Disorganisation and Regulatory failure (PDR) model and interview and document data from Sweden, we find a gradually increasing interest in AM in the early 2020s among the government and the social partners. Unions learn, inform, and bargain about AM; employers enact ‘healthy discipline’; and government agencies inspect digital risks in workplaces. Moreover, economic and reward pressures contribute to AM-associated OSH risks. Disorganisation manifests as a lack of knowledge about the OSH effects of AM, leading to ineffective OSH management. Regulatory failure is reflected in new EU regulations stalling national-level initiatives, since the overlapping regulations complicate the enforcement of existing OSH regulations. This study highlights the crucial role of trade unions in advancing the agenda on AM-related OSH risks. It also makes a theoretical contribution by extending the PDR model, offering insights into the driving forces shaping AM and compromising OSH beyond the workplace level – highlighting wider politico-economic and institutional dynamics influencing OSH.

This study explores the gender wage gap in Türkiye between 2013 and 2022 using a novel 10-year panel dataset constructed with administrative data compiled for the first time in Türkiye, which includes approximately 14 million full-year workers in 360 subgroups by demographic, sectoral, and occupational factors. The analysis examines the long-term effects of demographic factors, such as age, education, and marital status, as well as the work-related factors, including occupation and employment sector, on the gender wage gap. The findings reveal that men working full-time in formal employment earn 10.1% more than women in Türkiye, and the study shows evidence of how the gender wage gap varies across different demographic groups. The results obtained emphasise the significant roles of marital status, occupation, age, and sector in explaining the wage differential, while education is shown not have a meaningful long-term impact on the wage gap. Moreover, contrary to expectations, the study confirms that occupational experience, the aging labour force, and increased female labour force participation contribute to the widening of the gender wage gap. These findings underline the need for targeted economic and social policies to address gender-based wage differences in a country where the labour force participation of women has traditionally been outstandingly low. This study aims to contribute to the literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of a large-scale dataset that offers new insights into gender wage differences.

This study examines the direct and indirect effects of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) on profitability, with a focus on the role of company size as a mediator. The impact of CSRD and company size on profitability and CSRD on company size was examined using panel data regression for 48 companies listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange between 2012 and 2023. In addition, Baron and Kenny’s method was used to evaluate the mediation effect. The analysis was repeated using the one-step generalised method of moments to address potential endogeneity issues. The results reveal a significant positive relationship between CSRD, company size, and their impact on profitability, as well as a significant positive correlation between CSRD and company size. Furthermore, the findings show that the relationship between CSRD and profitability in Palestinian companies is partially mediated by company size. The research outcomes are significant for experts and policymakers on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure policies and profitability. The positive results may lead to enhancing CSR disclosure policies within Palestinian companies and adopting sustainable practices that benefit society and the environment. This, in turn, may increase the chances of Palestinian companies of attracting investments.

The paper examines job quality in South Korea by applying a novel wellbeing-based approach to defining ‘bad jobs’, extending methodology previously validated in European labour markets. The study analyses Korean Working Conditions Survey (2014–2023) data to investigate the relationship between job quality and worker wellbeing. The analysis reveals a significant discontinuity in the marginal effects of job quality on wellbeing at the bottom decile, where improvements yield distinctly larger wellbeing gains for workers moving above this threshold, providing empirical support for this approach to defining ‘bad jobs’. The prevalence of bad jobs shows a declining trend between 2014 and 2023, reflecting both economic growth and policy interventions. While the sectoral distribution of bad jobs shows similarities with European patterns, distinctive features emerge in South Korea’s labour market structure, characterised by the unique role of large business conglomerates (chaebols) and institutional arrangements. This study represents the first application of a wellbeing-based approach to defining bad jobs in an Asian context, demonstrating both its international applicability and the importance of national context in understanding the patterns of bad jobs. The findings carry significant implications for labour market policy in South Korea’s rapidly evolving economy, particularly for addressing persistent disparities in job quality across different segments of the labour market.

This article examines how the Australian Liberal-National Coalition party’s (LNP) proposed working from home policy, which would have mandated a return to office for public servants, contributed to a dramatic electoral loss. The 2025 Australian federal election delivered an unexpected landslide victory to the incumbent Australian Labor Party, defying polling predictions that had shown the LNP leading by 10 percentage points just months earlier. We argue that this policy proposal violated an evolving social contract that encompasses hybrid working as a fundamental employment right. Through analysis of media coverage, polling data, and post-election commentary, we demonstrate that the LNP’s failure to recognise this shift in social expectations regarding work arrangements played a significant role in their electoral defeat. Our findings suggest that hybrid working has become institutionalised as part of Australia’s evolving social contract, with implications for future political discourse and employment policy.