Sustainability is an important issue within many organizations. One way to make the organization more sustainable is to offer ‘green employment conditions’ to employees. Green employment conditions often encourage employees to make more sustainable choices. As well as helping to reduce the organization’s emissions, offering green employment conditions can also make the organization an attractive employer for (future) employees. In this article, we will therefore consider the design of green employment conditions and the implementation of these employment conditions in the organization. Finally, we will also discuss the development of green employment conditions in collective labour agreements.

Green employment conditions

A wide variety of green employment conditions can be conceivable. In many cases, green employment conditions encourage employees to make more sustainable choices. The employment conditions don’t have to be limited to more sustainable choices within the work environment, but can also involve encouraging more sustainable choices in the private sphere. We list some examples of green employment conditions (see also https://www.groeneovereenkomst.nl/ (Dutch only) in this context):

• Holidays: employees who choose to go on holiday by bike, train or on foot will receive two extra days of holiday.
• Holiday pay: employees who go on a sustainable holiday (at least once a year) will receive 8.2% holiday pay instead of 8% holiday pay.
• Travel allowance: travel by public transport will be fully reimbursed. In addition, employees can be offered free public transport for private travel as well. If an employee comes to work by bike, the employee will receive €0.23 per kilometer, in case of travelling by car this is €0.15 per kilometer.
• Lunch: a vegetarian lunch will be offered at work.
• Green budget: employees will be provided with a green budget that can be used, for example, to make their homes more sustainable or to buy an electric bike.
• Pension fund: the employer is affiliated with a sustainable pension fund.
• Volunteer work: employees will receive one extra day off if they spend this day on volunteer work with a green purpose, a demonstration or climate strike.

Implementation of green employment conditions in the organization

The next question is how to implement these employment conditions in the organization. For new employees, these conditions can be agreed upon when entering into the employment contract, just like other employment conditions. In the case of changing already existing employment conditions, this is only possible if the employee agrees to a change or if the conditions for unilateral change are met.

In many cases, green employment conditions will offer an employee something extra, which means that implementing these green employment conditions will not easily cause problems in practice. Green employment conditions can then, for example, be included in a staff manual or agreed via an addendum. If employment conditions are changed in a negative way – such as reducing the current mileage allowance for employees who travel to work by car – the employee’s consent will be less obvious. In these situations, it will have to be considered whether the route of unilateral change is feasible, which will depend on the specific circumstances of the case. This often comes down to a weighing of interests. The employer’s interest in sustainability must outweigh the employee’s interest. Relevant circumstances in a weighing up may include, for example, the type of employment condition that is changed, the extent of the employee’s loss and whether compensation or bridging measures are offered. The possibility of unilateral change will have to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Furthermore, when implementing green employment conditions in the organization,  it is advisable to discuss the need for green employment conditions with employees in advance and allow employees to contribute ideas on how to implement them. After all, employees might also experience certain green employment conditions as interference by the employer. When designing the green employment conditions, it is also important to determine whether the works council should be involved (by means of a request for approval) or whether the works council can play a relevant role on a voluntary basis.

Green employment conditions in collective labour agreements

There is also increasing attention for green employment conditions at the collective level. For example, the trade union CNV notes on its website that the phenomenon of green conditions is increasing, particularly with regard to encouraging green behaviour. Although there is no precise insight yet into the number of collective labour agreements in which green employment conditions are actually laid down, we already noted the presence of green employment conditions in a number of collective labour agreements.

For example, the Achmea and Teijin Aramid collective labour agreements, provide employees with a ‘green budget’ or a ‘climate budget’. These budgets vary from EUR 1,500 to EUR 2,500 and can be spent on making one’s homes more sustainable. Specific examples of spending targets are solar panels, charging stations and insulated glass. A similar arrangement is also included in the Central Government collective labour agreement, in which sustainable behaviour is encouraged via the Individual Choice Budget. Another example of a collective labour agreement that contains green employment conditions is the ANWB collective labour agreement, in which the amount of compensation per kilometer travelled is made dependent on the employee’s contribution to ANWB’s triple-zero ambition. Thus, employees receive an allowance of 18 cents per kilometer for cycling or walking, a 100% cost reimbursement for traveling by public transport and 15 cents per kilometer for traveling by car.

Nevertheless, the number of collective labour agreements that include green employment conditions still seems small. In our opinion, this could be discussed more often at the collective bargaining table and, in the absence of a collective labour agreement, in meetings with the works council.

Want to know more? Feel free to contact Niels van Boekel or Puck van Genuchten.