Worker welfare
The renewable energy sector is experiencing unprecedented growth and the responsibility to ensure fair labour practices and improve the well-being of workers is becoming increasingly important. Industry trends suggest that renewable energy projects often rely heavily on migrant and posted workers.
These groups are believed to be more exposed to adverse working conditions (as can be read in this article (Dutch)).
Various parties, including Vattenfall, Sunrock, SSE Renewables, trade union FNV and the Danish Institute for Human Rights, have therefore joined forces in a collective project to improve worker welfare in the renewable energy sites. The project focuses in particular on vulnerable worker groups, such as migrant and posted workers, who are involved in the construction and installation of solar and wind farms.
The project partners aim to increase parties’ insight into the adverse risks that the use of posted and migrant workers can entail. To this end, the parties have developed a toolbox, which consists of 20 tools, including training materials, inspection and audit checklists, shared principles for worker well-being and remediation plans. The toolbox is designed to support companies and their suppliers, contractors and business partners in identifying, addressing and remediating negative impacts on the workers. The ultimate goal of the toolbox is to improve the well-being of workers on renewable energy project sites.