EMPLOYERS and workers have committed to ensure businesses succeed while ensuring workers are supported in a green economy.
The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) and the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) signed yesterday the Bipartite Declaration on Just Transition from a fossil-fuel driven to a low carbon economy that is sustainable and environmentally sound.
The commitment was made even as the Philippines is still defining its just transition framework.
“ECOP’s vision for a just transition is clear: through policy advocacy, bipartism, and our Sustainability Roadmap, we are paving the way for businesses to succeed in a green economy while ensuring that workers are supported every step of the way,” said Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr., president of ECOP, in a statement yesterday.
“There is no just transition without workers’ rights,” said Sonny Matula, president of the FFW.
The leaders cited the need to balance meeting environmental goals with the economic realities businesses face while including social inclusion, poverty reduction in meeting such goals.
Under the Bipartite Declaration on Just Transition, the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific Region, ECOP and FFW agreed to form a national bipartite just transition committee and will encourage the establishment of industry- and enterprise-level bipartite just transition committees.
The declaration calls for genuine representation of workers and employers in any and all just transition structures pertaining to the just transition.
The bipartite declaration signing highlights the two-day National Conference on Just Transition jointly organized by the FFW and ECOP with the support of the Danish Trade Union Development Agency and Danish Industry, as part of a partnership agreement involving the workers’ and employers’ organization from the Philippines and Denmark.
