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On Friday 8th April 2016, industriAll Europe, EPSU and EFBWW met with ENGIE’s CEO, Gérard Mestrallet, and Executive Vice-President, Isabelle Kocher at ENGIE’s (former GDF-Suez) headquarters in Paris to sign a European social agreement dealing with the anticipation of change and the employability of all of ENGIE group’s workers in Europe.
In April 2015, when the Group announced its new strategic direction, the European federations and ENGIE management immediately considered opening transnational negotiations in the light of substantial transformations of the French energy company. The trade unions, under the umbrella of the European federations, then negotiated a European agreement for the employees aimed at improving their social conditions in four key areas: employment, training, professional mobility, as well as social guarantees in the event of change.
“This is an ambitious European agreement. The negotiations yielded substantial commitments, and especially the recognition of a minimum base of social guarantees for all the employees of the Group in the European Economic Area. The signature of this European agreement does not mark the end of the process, but the beginning of a potentially delicate implementation phase at local level which we will closely watch”, says Sylvain Lefebvre, industriAll Europe’s Deputy General Secretary.
The positive assessment of the agreement will, in the long run, be dependent on its exemplary implementation, given its far-reaching provisions. They indeed imply the improvement, or even the establishment, of new rights for the employees in all of the countries concerned, and the (at the very least) retention of those rights in the event of a change of situation. Furthermore, a non-regression clause ensures that the existing (legal or acquired through collective agreements) acquis cannot be reduced.
The anticipation of change is granted a pivotal role with dedicated provisions fostering the strategic planning of changes in jobs and skills. Ensuring that forward planning of employment and skills, workforce planning and lifelong learning become regular and concerted features of HR policies is a priority for industriAll Europe, in the socially responsible management of restructuring.
The signatories, ENGIE management and European trade unions, are key actors in the deployment of the agreement. Its implementation is based on social dialogue which therefore gets a new impetus at the different Group’s levels. In addition, a Monitoring Committee will be set up and the European federations or the Group management could be alerted in the event of non-compliance with the agreement and its application. The agreement also provides for a communication campaign aimed at raising awareness amongst workers, including a trade union flyer which will be distributed to all ENGIE workers in Europe as well as a joint press release.
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