On 12 September 2019, global utilities group SUEZ signed a new European agreement on professional equality that applies to almost 61,000 staff working across all its subsidiaries Europewide. The agreement targets a continued increase in the number of females employed and affirms its zero tolerance policy in terms of wage discrimination and sexual harassment, as well as making a commitment to match paternity leave remuneration conditions with those for maternity leave (c.f. article No. 11355). In an interview with Planet Labor, Corinne Borralho, Corporate Industrial relations Director, discusses the contents of an agreement that will affect almost 70% of the group’s headcount and that strengthens the commitments undertaken in the previous 2015 agreement (c.f. article No. 8995).
- How would you assess your 2015 agreement?
Corinne Borralho. The 2015 agreement had a strong focus on raising the female headcount cohort within a highly male dominated context. At the time that shared willingness among the social partners led to the monitoring of three fundamental indicators namely, the proportion of female hires, the rate of female participation across the various SUEZ occupational groups, and the rate of female participation at managerial level. Four years later and we have seen progress being made in terms of the proportion of female hires, which although now at 23%, remains short of our 25% target.
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