WEI Seminar with Professor Marco Hauptmeier

Abstract: This presentation examines the fundamental contradiction between state-driven green energy ambitions and the material realities of work and social dialogue in the UK offshore wind sector. Drawing on a qualitative approach that includes interviews with government officials, think tanks, providers, and social dialogue actors, the research explores how modern work fragmentation undermines established labour standards and collective bargaining. While the UK government anticipates that initiatives like the tripartite Fair Work for Wind Charter will create thousands of good jobs and robust worker voice, the technical and commercial organisation of the sector structurally resists traditional employment regulation. Using the Dogger Bank development (located in the North Sea off the east coast of England and set to be the largest offshore wind farm in the world) as a focal point, the study demonstrates that offshore wind produces surprisingly low direct and local employment, relying instead on a transient workforce and complex, outsourced supply chains. The findings suggest that if state frameworks are to deliver genuinely high-quality work, public policy must move beyond voluntary, single-employer agreements and develop mechanisms capable of regulating the multi-employer, borderless realities of green energy production.

Bio: Marco Hauptmeier is a Professor of Work and Employment at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. A recovering academic following a stint on the management board and as Pro Dean for Doctoral Studies, he is currently undertaking a year-long research sabbatical. An alumnus of Cornell University, his research focuses on comparative employment relations. He is currently working on two main research projects: an EU Horizon project examining how social dialogue shapes work and employment relations during the digital and green transition, and an ESRC study exploring the impact of Brexit on European works councils, along with colleagues in France and in Germany.