EGRUiEN - Encouraging a Digital and Green Transition through Revitalized and Inclusive Union-Employer Negotiations.

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Project sheet

CALL FORWARD: HORIZON-CL2-2024-TRANSFORMATIONS-01 (A sustainable future for Europe) Type of Action: HORIZON-RIA (HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions)

TITLE: Encouraging a digital and Green transition through Revitalized and Inclusive Union-Employer Negotiations (acronym EGRUiEN)

DURATION: 4 years from 01.01.01.2025 to 31.12.2028

RESPONSIBLE: prof. Fabio Landini

COORDINATOR: JYVASKYLAN YLIOPISTO (Jyvaskyla, Finland)

SCIENTIFIC AREA: Industrial relations, Social dialogue, Green and Digital Transition, Precarious Workers

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) GOAL: Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth; Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities; Goal 13: Fighting Climate Change

Project sheet on CORDIS website: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101178146

Project website: https://egruien.eu/en

Project social:

Brief description

The EGRUiEN project aims to answer a crucial question: how to ensure a green and digital transition that is also socially equitable, through institutions and practices of social dialogue, capable of protecting, representing and including precarious and atypical workers, as well as preventing the precarization of those who today occupy stable positions in the primary labor market.

Europe is facing a rapid and profound transition phase, which is transforming production, employment, work organization and the skills required in many sectors. In particular, EGRUiEN focuses its survey on four key areas: automotive, energy, "on-demand" transportation (such as cabs and digital platforms), and care services. This process of change poses complex and sometimes contradictory challenges: while the transition must take place urgently, for economic and environmental reasons, it also generates processes of creative destruction that threaten to undermine the resilience and effectiveness of social dialogue.

And yet, social dialogue has historically been a key tool for accompanying transitions. EGRUiEN aims to analyze how, in the past, social dialogue has faced similar transformations, and how it is adapting to this dual transition today. Through participatory action-research conducted with current and potential social actors, the project will create a solid knowledge base to revitalize social dialogue, making it more inclusive and effective in governing the green and digital transition.

EGRUiEN is divided into nine Work Packages (WPs):

WP1: project management and coordination;
WP2: historical analysis and definition of the theoretical framework;
WP3-WP6: sectoral studies on automotive, energy, support services and transportation on demand;
WP7: participatory research-action at the European level;
WP8: transnational analysis and proposal for a new social dialogue;
WP9: dissemination of results.

The historical approach (WP2) provides the conceptual basis for sector studies (WP3-6), which in turn feed into EU-level participatory action-research (WP7) and transnational benchmarking (WP8). Dissemination is integrated throughout the research journey through the active involvement of social actors, but it also finds full expression in WP9, which is dedicated to the dissemination of results to practitioners, policy makers, and the scientific community.

Unipr's research activities (WP 8)

WP 8, coordinated by the University of Parma, focuses on the future role of social dialogue in Europe, particularly on how institutions and social partners (such as trade unions and employer organizations) can help workers cope with the major transformations underway, such as the ecological and digital transition.

A multidisciplinary research team composed of economists and sociologists is coordinating research activities in three main directions:

Collection and synthesis of case studies carried out in 9 countries
The four focus sectors of the project (energy, automotive, "on-demand" transportation, and care services) will be analyzed, comparing how social dialogue develops in different national contexts and in sectors with different degrees of exposure to technological or environmental change. Strategies adopted by the social partners and specific challenges related to work, such as the emergence of demographic inequalities or the spread of precarious jobs, will be studied.
Link between sectors and workers' well-being
The impact these transformations have on workers' well-being will be analyzed, using quantitative data already available at the European level. Particular attention will be paid to the most vulnerable workers (such as those with atypical contracts) and to social factors such as gender or ethnic origin, in order to understand how working conditions vary in different contexts.
Innovative proposals to address new labor challenges through social dialogue
Based on the findings, useful recommendations will be developed to improve or reform social dialogue, both at the national and European level. Proposals will be discussed with project partners and stakeholders so as to ensure that they are realistic and useful for addressing challenges related to changes in the world of work.