The Building and Wood Workers’ International union (BWI) released Migration & Just Transition in the Built Environment: Realising the Rights of Migrant Construction Workers in the Green Transition (November 2024). The report highlights the risks facing migrant workers in the green transition and offers solutions for different industry players to address these risks.
Human Level’s Take:
- Migrant construction workers are vital to the green building transition but face significant risks where they live and work, including unsafe conditions, climate vulnerability and barriers to labour rights like collective bargaining. They face the double-headed challenge of “precarity of work” and “precarity of place”: their employment can be insecure and their workplaces are at high risk of safety and human rights violations, and at the same time they are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their living conditions.
- Business models and investment structures that prioritise short-term profits over worker protections hinder progress towards rights-respecting, decent work for migrant workers on-site and in the supply chain. By contrast, addressing migrant worker vulnerabilities, improving coordination, social dialogue and collective bargaining, and upholding high labour standards in construction can further a just green transition.
- To fulfill a just transition, employers and industry bodies should foster social dialogue, support collective bargaining, ensure equal treatment of migrant and non-migrant workers, eliminate recruitment fees, incorporate labour protections in green certification schemes, and provide adequate climate-related workplace safeguards and accommodations.
- Investors and owners should integrate labour provisions for migrant workers in contracts, ensure projects do not exploit workers, uphold human rights due diligence, and engage in initiatives to improve working and living conditions for migrant workers in construction and the supply chain.
Some key takeaways:
- Migrants are essential to the green building transition but face outsized risks: There is growing recognition of the construction industry's crucial role in decarbonisation and climate resilience, reflected in policies like the EU Green Deal, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and initiatives in Latin America and the Gulf states. Workers in construction and related industries are already facing the impacts of climate change, including heat stress, storms, flooding and wildfires, with migrant workers being especially vulnerable due to their migration status. As a growing and integral part of the construction workforce, migrant workers will be key to the industry's green transition, requiring recognition of their contributions and full respect for their rights to ensure a just transition. Despite their essential role, migrant workers face severe risks in the construction sector: they face discrimination and barriers to organising and collective bargaining, which perpetuates the power imbalances between employers and workers. They face both “precarity of work” and “precarity of place” — meaning that their employment can be insecure and their workplaces are at high risk of safety and human rights violations, and at the same time they are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to their living conditions.
- Four foundational considerations: The report underscores that these considerations are needed for a just transition in the built environment. First, a just climate transition in construction must prioritise the rights of migrant workers, ensuring freedom of association, collective bargaining, occupational health and safety, responsible recruitment and timely wage payment. Second, current construction business models, which are marked by consolidation, fragmented subcontracting and heavy reliance on manpower agencies, hinder accountability and innovation, and undermine the potential of migrant workers to contribute fully to a just transition. Third, migrant workers often experience vulnerability in employer-provided housing, including poor living conditions and exposure to climate risks; the report points out that migrant workers’ accommodation can be “less protected from climate and its impacts than the buildings which they work on.” Fourth, there is a need for better information sharing and coordination between workers, the construction industry and government. The first step of this is listening to the experiences of migrant workers and acting on human rights impacts in their work and accommodations.
- Recommendations for the private sector: The report offers recommendations for different key players in the green building sector. Employers and industry bodies should engage in meaningful social dialogue and support collective bargaining across the full workforce; base just transition plans on social dialogue and collective bargaining and take migrants’ rights into account. They should also ensure that workers do not pay recruitment fees; ensure equal treatment of migrant and non-migrant workers in pay, climate protections and access to training on climate impacts; incorporate worker protection and labour standards in green certification schemes to ensure that human rights are required for any building or project to be “green”; and ensure adequate workplace protections from extreme weather, such as early warning systems, adequate clothing, hydration and breaks, compensation for any hours lost, and climate protections for employer-provided worker accommodation. Investors and owners should include labour provisions (including for migrant workers on-site and in the supply chain) in bidding processes and contracts; prevent a “race to the bottom” by ensuring that investment vehicles, project plans and timeframes do not create risks to workers on-site and in the supply chain; engage their construction and real estate portfolios on human rights due diligence; and participate in partnerships and initiatives to improve working and living conditions for migrant workers in construction.
