Sustainability and Transnational Collective Bargaining

The societies of the southern European countries are becoming increasingly polarized. In Spain, the outbreak of the financial crisis precipitated the burst of the housing bubble, while prompting a sharp current account adjustment. One of the main consequences has been the segmentation of the employment into multiple statutes and the exponential increase of precariousness. In this context, green jobs offer new opportunities. According to the International Labour Organization, the debate about green jobs has been one of the most successful in the advanced economies in terms of raising employment levels and keeping marginalization down. 

The expansion of both green sectors is linked to the rate of the reduction of carbon emissions in the economy.  The paper explores the connections between environmental governance and collective bargaining over almost one decade. It examines the regulatory initiatives of that period from a multilevel perspective, and it seeks to identify the instruments and practices of the current social dialogue developed by the social actors. The paper concludes that collective agreements can contribute to new principles and practices, and new collaborative environmental legal forms for firms.