United States: Trump administration tells EU companies to end diversity policies Legal developments On 28 March, several large EU companies received a letter from the US government asking them to abandon their diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes, or risk losing their contracts with the federal government. This has provoked numerous reactions, particularly from the French and Belgian governments, who immediately denounced this interference and reaffirmed their commitment to diversity policies.
Confidentiel [mind RH news] Veolia strikes European agreement on diversity and inclusion Transnational industrial relations Veolia, the French multinational providing water, energy and waste recycling management services, is to sign a European framework agreement on diversity and inclusion with the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It will create a right to paid leave in cases of domestic violence and commits the group to LGBTQ+ rights. The agreement comes as Veolia adjusts to the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and comes at a time when large international companies are renouncing their policies in these areas under pressure from the Trump administration.
United Kingdom: ethnic diversity slowly increasing on boards of directors Corporate practices The Parker Review of ethnic diversity on the boards of directors of major UK companies, published on 11 March, highlights a significant improvement at those listed on the FTSE 250 in 2024. However, not all the groups concerned have yet appointed a director from a minority group to their board, contrary to the objective that had been set.
Interview Laurence Hulin (La Poste): “We have created expert roles to support disabled employees” Diversity France's postal service operator La Poste, which has 238,000 employees, has pursued an active policy that has made it one of the leading employers of disabled employees in the country, starting with its first agreement on disability signed back in 1995. Laurence Hulin, La Poste's director of diversity and equal opportunities, looks back at the commitment and actions that have enabled the company to achieve an employment rate for people with disabilities of almost 9%.
Italy: banking sector employees approve trade unions’ platform of demands as sector collective agreement still awaits renewal National industrial relations With the procedures for renewing the banking sector’s collective bargaining agreement running behind schedule, the sector’s social partners agreed to extend the previous agreement from its expiry date of 31 December 2022 until 31 July 2023. The workers' assemblies have almost unanimously (99.5%) approved the trade unions’ ‘platform of demands’ so negotiations for renewing the sector’s national collective bargaining agreement (NCA) should open imminently. The NCA covers some 280,000 employees.
Great Britain: electric goods retailer Currys is providing paid gender reassignment leave Diversity On 26 June, UK white goods retailer Currys (32,000 staff worldwide and at least 10,000 in the UK) announced it was offering its UK employees undergoing gender reassignment, access to an additional six-week paid leave scheme. This announcement comes at a time when the retail sector in the UK is still having to cope with unprecedented staff shortages.
France: Apicil proposes a tool to improve inclusivity in companies Diversity In partnership with Mix’r, (a network of responsible companies) and Humando (employment agencies), Apicil, the Lyon-based mutual social protection group (2,000+ employees) has put a questionnaire together that aims to measure employees' perceptions of inclusion and diversity, the goal of which is to make progress in this area. Deployed across its own employees in particular, this tool was able to identify several subjects that respondents perceived as potential factors for discrimination (including physical appearance), and the results will now drive the implementation of specific measures starting in 2023.
Free Canada: National Bank is recruiting neurodivergent professionals to its data science teams Diversity Convinced that neurodiversity allows companies “to access unique skills and ways of thinking,” the National Bank of Canada has implemented a tailored recruitment process in collaboration with EY Canada (consulting and financial services) to attract neurodivergent professionals to its data engineering analyst and data scientist teams.…
Great Britain: Virgin Media 02 will fund gender transition treatment for its employees Diversity On 13 April the recently merged UK telecommunications giant unveiled new commitments to improve inclusion and gender equality within the group over the next five years. The group’s ‘All In’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) strategy is the first since the merger between Virgin media and O2 in 2021 and includes company funding for gender transition treatment for its transgender and non-binary employees.
Free Great Britain: government launches a pilot scheme on salary transparency National legislation On 08 March, International Women’s Day, the UK government unveiled a new pilot scheme that participating companies will be testing. The employers participating in this test,…
