Employers urged to prepare as UK government ramps up clean energy jobs plan

The new Clean Energy Jobs Plan published by the government at the weekend, with expectations that the number of clean energy sector jobs may double to 860,000 roles by 2030, looks to revamp the process to get more people into the workforce.

This includes funding to get 16- to 19-year-olds skilled in clean energy sector work, investing in engineering higher education provision and the launch of five clean energy technical excellence colleges. Existing investment plans to boost the UK’s skilled construction workforce will supplement this with 10 construction technical excellence colleges. Skills England will also ensure apprenticeships and technical qualifications deliver skills needed across the clean energy sector.

Up to £20 million will also be made available from the UK and Scottish governments to help upskill oil and gas industry workers to allow them to transition to roles in the renewables sector. The ‘energy skills passport’, which identifies routes for oil and gas workers to transition into roles in offshore wind, will also be updated to include nuclear and electricity grid roles.

The government has already published plans for a ‘fair work charter’ to cover the wind industry, with new social value requirements also having come into effect this month as part of the national procurement plan which applies equally to the clean energy sector. Both initiatives are a drive to improve standards and training within the sector. The plan also signals that the government considers the fair work charter for the wind industry as a pilot and will explore extending the concept to other clean energy sectors. 

Gillian Harrington, an employment law expert with Pinsent Masons, said the moves send a clear message to clean energy employers about the need to demonstrate commitment to improving employment standards.

“The message to employers who want to engage in government backed clean energy projects is clear - your employment standards will be an important aspect of any evaluation of a funding request or procurement opportunity,” she said.

“Employers in the clean energy sector may want to plan how any additional fair work standards can be factored into wider changes needed as the Employment Rights Bill is also gradually implemented.”

The report draws together previously highlighted themes, including the government’s clean energy industries sector plan (90 pages / 9.5 MB), 10-year industrial strategy (160 pages / 15.6 MB) and the recent consultation over proposals to link financial incentives for offshore wind companies to fair work standards and skills training for staff as part of clean industry bonuses (CIB) allocation.

The plan also looks to boost trade union involvement in the sector, with unions invited to negotiate the CIB fair work charter with the government and stakeholder employers, along with increasing union recognition and collective bargaining – with the plan noting: “For too long, parts of the clean energy sector have been a union-free zone”. The plan also announces that the government will, “work with industry and trade unions to explore a range of other initiatives, including the potential for Framework Agreements and sector specific arrangements to guide job quality standards for major infrastructure projects”.

Anthony Convery, an expert in employment law with Pinsent Masons, said: “The Employment Rights Bill will make trade union recognition easier and will give even non-recognised unions rights to request physical and digital access to workplaces. The new plan puts clean energy sector employers clearly in the line of sight of unions who are eager to get a foothold in workplaces operating in this sector”.

He added: “The plan for framework agreements also sounds somewhat like a form of sectoral collective bargaining for parts of the clean energy sector. The Employment Rights Bill only makes provision for sectoral collective bargaining in relation to adult social care and school support staff, but Labour’s Plan to Make Work Pay did say that it would assess how and to what extent sectoral collective bargaining could benefit other sectors and tackle labour market challenges”.

The plan also covers extending employment rights to certain offshore workers, with the intention of reducing discrepancies that it notes can arise between offshore oil and gas workers and offshore renewable and low carbon energy workers. Further clarification of this proposed extension of the law will be needed to understand the potential impact, the experts said.