25 October 2021
RMT Press Office:
TRANSPORT AND OFFSHORE Union RMT today responded to the report and recommendations by cross-party MPs on green jobs and Net Zero.
From the unions AGM in Leeds Mick Lynch, RMT General Secretary said:
“We welcome the Environmental Audit Committee’s report, which identifies the need for labour market regulation and investment in public transport to support the hundreds and thousands of good, green jobs which the Government is committed to but which we are not seeing in areas like decommissioning and the maritime supply chain.
"The Committee’s recommendation for Government to produce a Just Transition plan by the end of the year is welcome and captures the dangerous delay affecting my members and their families, particularly in the offshore oil and gas sector.
"Ahead of COP26, the Government is spouting a lot of hot air on green jobs which is jeopardising jobs and skills central to take-off in essential Net Zero industries such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.
"We need immediate action in the Budget this week to prevent any further losses of fossil fuel workers’ jobs and skills, to deliver the full scale expansion of public transport networks in order to cut emissions and increase employment, and to halt the Government’s short-sighted attacks on transport workers’ jobs, pay and conditions. We will be debating these critical issues at the RMT AGM this week.”
- Offshore oil and gas supported 440,000 UK jobs in 2013. There are now under 180,000 jobs across the industry.
- Over 90% of the UK’s oil and gas workforce have medium to high skills transferability to jobs in offshore renewables, decommissioning, subsea networks, hydrogen and Carbon Capture and Storage.
- Earlier this month, the Government announced plans for thousands of taxpayer funded redundancies at Train Operating Companies www.rmt.org.uk/news/taxpayers-money-to-fund-thousands-of-rail-redundancies/
- MPs on the EAC recommend that “…the Government’s net zero and environmental goals are considered at the design stage of future labour market interventions, to ensure that such interventions are fully aligned with the green recovery.” (Para 8. pg. 62)
- The Committee’s report also recommends that “The Government’s green jobs and just transition delivery plans should include analysis of the enabling infrastructure needed for people to access new green jobs, and allocate actions to the departments with responsibilities over this infrastructure.” (para. 36, Pg. 66.)
- RMT submitted written evidence to the EAC’s Green Jobs inquiry. The report was published this morning, 25 October 2021.
- The RMT is holding its Annual General Meeting in Leeds this week.
Unity House
Tel: 020 7387 4771
Email: