APC 2009 Annual Report Download - page 62

2009 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC60
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
2SOCIAL PERFORMANCE
Social dialogue and relations
Sites declaring employee representation
(in %) 2009 2008 2007
Unions 55%* 59%* 46%
Works council 64%* 69%* 67%
Health And Safety Committee 84%* 82%* 54%
* data cover more than 80 % of the workforce.
European Committee
Schneider Electric’s European Committee keeps employee
representatives informed of changes within the Group. Committee
members have their own training and information resources,
including an online database and forum and a quarterly e-newsletter.
In 2009, the Committee met three times in plenary session, held two
offi cers’ meetings and held two conference calls on specifi c topics.
European agreement on anticipating change
In July2007, Schneider Electric and the European Metalworkers’
Federation (EMF) signed a European agreement on anticipating
change. To remain competitive, the Group must be able to adapt
quickly to the constant changes in its business environment. Because
this kind of nimbleness requires active employee involvement, the
Group welcomed a European agreement on anticipating change.
The agreement also reflects Schneider Electric’s commitment
to nurturing employee development and ensuring employability,
as outlined in Our Principles of Responsibility. It underscores the
Group’s desire to help team members develop their skills throughout
their careers.
In particular, the agreement calls for:
•measures to promote forward-looking job and skills planning;
•social dialogue;
•specifi c job training during cross-border reorganization.
In this way, Schneider Electric offers tangible support for career
development.
This agreement and the related measures are designed to make
change a positive experience through social dialogue, prepare team
members for the new skill-sets Schneider Electric will need to fuel its
growth and lay the groundwork for future success—both collective
and individual.
On December18, 2009, Schneider Electric Senior Management and
EMF leaders met with the European Committee offi cers to review the
agreement’s deployment and defi ne an action plan for 2010, with the
goal of raising the agreement’s profi le and speeding its application
across Europe.
Group Works Council, France
This council, created in 1997, supports the various works councils
in Schneider Electric’s French subsidiaries and provides a setting
for information and discussion with employee representatives of the
Group’s French units.
A fi ve-day training session is organised for all new members to
provide a panorama of the Group’s operations and business
environment.
The council met in plenary session four times in 2009 and visited
Minatec and the French Atomic Energy Commission in Grenoble, in
accordance with the founding agreement’s provisions that call for two
educational visits of industrial, supply chain or R&D sites each year.
Collective agreements
Review of collective bargaining agreements
In 2009, there was very strong policy activity in the fi eld of industrial
relations and social dialogue for all structures or entities on the
French territory.
This activity –already signifi cant in previous years– was amplifi ed in
2009 for three main reasons:
•anticipation of strategic directions and their early inclusion at skills
level through a forward planning agreement;
•increasing operational integration and system optimisation in the
Human Resources function, which required deploying common
and cross-functional tools;
•the global economic crisis led the Company and the trade
unions to discuss the best ways to confront this context without
overburdening the future.
In 2009, 10 agreements and four amendments were signed.