The Group’s commitment to social dialogue is enshrined in its Manifesto. VINCI’s general policy reflects its fundamental principles:
The Group has always operated using a decentralised organisational and management approach, including with respect to social dialogue. One of VINCI’s priorities in its social dialogue approach is to develop close relations that are relevant and adapted to each business, giving labour representatives a real role to play at each business unit.
Although employers and employees build strong relations locally at VINCI subsidiaries, social dialogue also takes place at Group level through two bodies, the Group Works Council and the European Works Council.
The Group Works Council, which covers French companies (nearly 38% of the Group’s workforce), is comprised of 30 primary representatives, 17 alternate representatives and five trade union representatives, all from different business lines. Generally, and in line with the agreements on Group Works Council organisation and procedures, two plenary meetings are held each year, and the officers meet every two months. These meetings offer the opportunity to engage in transparent dialogue and discuss many issues, such as workforce-related information, the Group’s financial position, its future outlook as well as Group events and news.
Trade unions are provided with financial resources to fulfil the duties assigned to representatives from the business units. Financial assistance is also paid every year to the trade unions represented on the Group Works Council. This amount was €230,000 in 2022. In agreement with the officers of the Group Works Council, the budget allocated every year to the body’s experts, which increased by 15% in 2021, was maintained. An additional €30,000 will go towards broadening their expertise on workforce-related issues, which will be the main thrust of the second annual plenary meeting.
The European Works Council (EWC) takes up discussions at the European level (*) that originally initiated within the various local or national organisations. In 2022, four negotiation meetings took place with a special negotiating body (SNB) made up of 12 EWC members who speak eight different languages. The outcome of these meetings was a new agreement setting the conditions for the creation, operation and role of the EWC for the 2023-2026 term. The council’s mandate makes provisions for the appointment of 31 full members and 31 alternate members from 15 countries in which VINCI operates. This increase in the number of members means that the council will cover Cobra IS and the United Kingdom, despite the latter’s withdrawal from the European Economic Area, and focus on CSR issues that apply to the entire Group.
The EWC has the unique role of information and dialogue with employee representatives at the European level. Its primary purpose is to improve the rights of workers to information and consultation. It is an essential element in the policy to promote social dialogue across all the Group’s European subsidiaries. To ensure that EWC members are properly informed and trained on CSR issues and to involve them in implementing CSR measures taken by the Group, a CSR Committee was created in 2018. This committee’s meetings provide an opportunity to explore and debate issues relating to safety, the Group’s environmental ambition and its social responsibility. As an example, the responsible subcontracting policy (via the Group’s social audits) was discussed in 2022, as were possible ways to extend it outside France. Another outcome was a workshop organised in December 2022 on everyday sexism and how employee representatives can, in their respective countries, both respond to and apply the Group’s policy on this issue.
The new agreement signed in September 2022 maintains this CSR Committee for the 2023-2026 term, mainly to monitor the application of environmental guidelines and the statement on occupational health and safety. In addition to the CSR Committee, working groups comprised of EWC members and internal experts can now be set up to focus on specific issues that apply to the entire Group.
The agreement to promote social dialogue brings further support for these principles by creating a basic set of actions designed to support and encourage this dialogue within VINCI companies in France. The main changes involve the recommendations set forth by labour representatives and by the Group following the effective application of labour legislation. For instance, companies and organisations with over 50 employees are recommended to set up a health, safety, and working conditions committee (CSSCT), while the current legal minimum is set at 300 employees. Furthermore, companies of any size are recommended to hold a regular social and economic committee meeting every month, and to check the organisation’s progress on prevention, health and safety indicators at every meeting.
In order to encourage dialogue that is sensitive to the realities of the economic and labour context in which each business line operates, labour representatives and the Group have opted for the implementation of employee representative bodies at business lines. This employee representation system is well suited to VINCI’s decentralised organisation, and is set out in the agreement to promote social dialogue within the Group. In 2022, consultative and information bodies aligned with the Group’s policy in this area were in place at the level of the VINCI Energies and VINCI Construction business lines. Due to changes in scope, these business line bodies will eventually be adapted to the new structure. In fact, discussions of these changes with staff representatives either kicked off in the second half of 2022 or will begin in January 2023.
(*) European Economic Area and Switzerland, representing 71% of the Group’s workforce at 31 December 2022.
