Work, Politics and the Green Industrial Revolution : A Reflective Analysis of the Uk Green Jobs Taskforce

 In 2020, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched The Green Jobs Taskforce, which extended and articulated the green jobs policy of his government and its position within conservative political ideology. This book critically highlights gaps in the political and business decision-making of his Taskforce, most notably on: the limited role of employers and HRM associations in skills building for staff in non-polluter industries (solar and wind); issues of a fair and just transition for workers losing jobs in the polluter industries (fossil fuels); and the lack of employee voice in both work arenas. The overtly pro-conservative and political nature of this UK Taskforce is also analyzed, which occurs and operates in opposition to British trade unions and the wider labor movement, by not prioritizing the just transition, alongside the extensive skills, training and passporting requirements that British workers need to gain decent, green jobs.

Douglas W.S. Renwick is Associate Professor of Sustainable Work in the Human Resource Management Department at Nottingham Business School, UK, and Senior Fellow, Rennes Business School, France. He is a leading scholar in green HRM, a concept he coined with others in 2005. His most recent global green HRM research examines factors that drive forward staff voluntary workplace green behaviors, a green competing values framework and decent, green jobs.