On 19 November, the French branch of the American food corporation Cargill (155,000 employees worldwide) and its trade unions signed an agreement on professional equality. It contains measures on HR processes, grants new rights in terms of parenthood and creates a menstrual leave allowance for female employees. With this move the company, which is going through a spell of difficulty, is seeking to promote gender diversity in a sector where female representation is low.
Social advances amid bleak economic outlook. A few days before Cargill’s announcement on 3 December that it would be cutting 8,000 jobs worldwide (or 5% of its workforce), the details of which have yet to be worked out, French employees learned that the company had signed an agreement on professional equality in mid-November. This agreement, signed five years after the first draft, includes several new commitments, notably to neutralise the impact of parenthood on women’s careers.
Do you have information to share with us?
Article authors
Antoine Piel
Section Head at Mind HR