Follow up Committee on Equality Agreement on paternity/parental leave, pay statistics and implementation

(4 June 2013) The trade unions in GdFsuez and its management reached a comprehensive agreement on how to promote equality in the company on June 2012. The agreement foresaw the establishment of a follow up committee. It has 20 representatives including from the European Trade Union Federations. The main purpose of the committee meeting was to consider if and how the agreement was implemented.

Management and trade union representatives gave an overview of the situation in their countries. Three groups of countries could be distinguished. One group in which discussions had taken place and an agreement was reached. Another group in which discussions were taking place and a third group in which no discussions had taken place.

In some countries discussions focused on equal pay while in others practical issues such as the lack of sanitation for women were addressed.

It was agreed that central management and the European Federations would encourage implementation with a further reporting to be expected in October. Trade union representatives also draw attention to the impact Perform 2015 could have on the objectives set out in the agreement and suggested that its gender neutrality should be explored.

The group also considered the results of the study on paternity and parental leave. During the negotiations this was one of the main points of debate. The study clarified the terminology, gave an overview of the situation in all countries and an indication of the use of paternity and parental leave in GdfSuez itself. In some companies a problem was noted with management not taking up parental leave and hence not being seen as “role models”. The issue of paid leave or not plays a big role. Where leave is paid more men make use of it. A small number of countries does not have an entitlement to paid paternity leave although in some cases this was arranged in the collective agreement. A proposal was made to ensure that every man in GdfSuez will be entitled to paternity leave and this will be considered further. Further points of attention will be to encourage management to take up parental leave and encourage all men to use their entitlement to paid leave.

The last item on the agenda was the update on progress on reaching the objectives set out in the agreement for a larger number of women in the company. The progress overall was very small. GdfSuez does not achieve its objective of having a more diverse workforce yet. The same is true for its objective to increase the number of women in management positions although some progress is made. It has been successful in having more women in higher level positions. The committee also looked at the pay statistics. While noting that the statistics need to be considered with care and the national (or aggregate) figures can hide a diverse situation of the company, they can give an indication of trends and of companies in countries where the pay gap is particular wide.

The first following up committee took place on 30-31 May 2013 in Paris. For EPSU Nadja Salson and Jan Willem Goudriaan took part.