(12 March 2015) On 9 March EPSU organised a workshop in cooperation with ETUI on multinational corporations in the infrastructure sectors, focusing on the energy sector.
The workshop had two very interesting presentations; one by Jane Lethbridge (PSIRU) on financing of public infrastructure and one by Bettina Kampman (CE Delft) on Challenges and opportunities in the energy sector.
We had a good debate about the need to invest in our public infrastructure and services, not only in new technologies, but also in people to upgrade their skills and educate workers to enable them to make a transition to “smart” infrastructures.
One of the conclusions of the workshop was that it is necessary to have a stable and reliable long-term policy with regards to infrastructure sectors, because otherwise no investor will put money into infrastructure and services. Investments in infrastructure sectors have a horizon of 40-50 years. An example is the situation in several countries where at this moment there is an overcapacity in electricity supply. This is a consequence of investments in large centralized power plants a few years ago that now cannot produce electricity in a profitable way because of this overcapacity. Closure of power plants is a result. This would not have been the case if there had been a vision for long-term energy supply and investments in upgrading existing plants and better interconnections. With regards to trade unions and EWCs a challenge is to be involved (informed and consulted) on investment strategies of companies. This should help to promote and safeguard employment as well as quality services. Also pension funds are increasingly becoming investors in infrastructure. As partner in pension funds, trade unions should ensure that their investments are made into companies that respect workers rights and public service values, and not into companies that seek for quick and maximum profits.
A lot of infrastructure has been built with Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). The PPP-model is based on the idea that risks would be shared between governments and the private sector, but in practice it turned out that risks always turn back to the public sector. In the end people will pay the price for extra costs. Besides this there is a lack of transparency in PPP’s as a private consortium sets up an SPV to outsource risks and there are often up to six or more contracts (layers of contracts) involved. An extra risk is the risk of tax evasion, as a PPP consortium can be based in a low tax country while executing the project in another country. Democratic accountability should be ensured.
An outcome is that sustainability should be a condition for investments. Another outcome was that there should be a stronger recognition of the public service obligation that energy companies and in general all public services companies have, to provide for a universal service/ access for all.
For the energy sector a few scenarios have been explored. For sure there are threats to employment and working conditions as pressure on workers increases in stronger competition and demands for higher efficiency, but also opportunities arise from more/new services (smart grids, transport, energy storage, energy efficiency), less centralised and more decentralised production and a reduction of energy imports. A task for trade unions and EWCs is to ensure that new jobs will be decent jobs and investments will benefit to the workers.
- Presentation by Jane Lethbridge, Director, Public Services
International Research Unit (PSIRU), University of Greenwich, UK: "Financing of public infrastructures"
- Presentation by Bettina Kampman (CE Delft) on Challenges and opportunities in the energy sector
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