The discussion paper, available in its full version here, acknowledges that the green-digital twin transition can lead to cleaner production, provide a boost to economic sustainability and create new jobs, but stresses that it will also lead to large numbers of jobs being eliminated, substituted or transformed.

It notes that there is also a risk that job quality and working conditions in ‘new’ jobs will be lower than in ‘old’ jobs, and that the consequences of the twin transition for labour markets, employment and working conditions are enormous and span all economic sectors.

It further argues that in this dynamic time of profound and rapid transformation, it is vital that workers and their representatives – trade unions – are involved, engaged and have their voices heard in change management at all levels and at a very early stage, and that they need to ensure that the green-digital twin transition is not only geared towards climate neutrality and economic competitiveness but also towards social fairness. In an integrated process, according to the discussion paper, they need to make sure, together with social partner counterparts and policy makers, that the transitions will leave no one behind and that there will be balance between the economic, the environmental and the social.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger says: “Today, as we kick-off our Summer Days 2022 on fair green-digital transitions, we launch our input into the discussions on this topic, by means of a paper with priorities from our trade union perspective for a green-digital twin transition that not only considers the interests of consumers, business and the environment, but also that of citizens, workers and their families.”