(28 March 2014) In an extraordinary meeting on 12 March 2014 the EWC of Gas de France-Suez (GDF-Suez) gave its opinion on the "development project for the Group's Shared Services Centres in France and Belgium". EPSU participated in the meeting. As a condition for its opinion the EWC asked for a number of commitments from management, which were all given.
The commitments made by the GdF-Suez management are in brief:
- No dismissal for any employee affected by the project to implement the Shared Services.
- No forced mobility for employees affected by the project.
- Personalised support to employees with regard to their personal and family situation with financial assistance that takes account of the employee's family situation.
- Priority redeployment of "duplicate" staff within the GDF SUEZ Group with financial and professional support.
All tools, mapping of professional pathways, skills overview, etc. will be made available to every employee affected by the project. Each employee is entitled to mentoring from a personnel representative of their choice. Each employee will be offered training or retraining.
Collective agreements and staff regulations of each entity remain unchanged under local legislation.
The social commitments will be monitored by the EWC and/or at meetings of the EWC secretariat and EWC working groups over the next 2 years. Detailed social reporting with a point "0" by SSC will be provided to local representative bodies and at EWC level. We think this is quite a good achievement. It shows that the EWC and EPSU have a strong position in the company and that we are able to defend workers’ rights and negotiate a good result. In GDF-Suez the restructuring operations continue at high pace. Next project is formation of a European Energy Branch for which again the opinion of the EWC is indispensable and a prerequisite to safeguard decent working conditions for all workers across Europe.
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