The total employer’s contribution for the Castor International mutual fund was €130.3 million in 2024 for a 24% subscription rate. The Castor International plan has grown continuously since its inception. With the inclusion of Croatia, it covered 46 countries in 2024. The plan enables more than 83% of Group employees outside France to become VINCI shareholders and benefit from employer contributions paid in by the Group.
The opportunities for employees to benefit from these profit-sharing arrangements significantly enhance the Group’s ability to attract and retain employees.
The importance that the Group attaches to employee share ownership is also reflected in the number and frequency of share offerings. In 2024, 87% of employees worldwide were given the option to enrol in the employee share ownership programme.
The development of e-learning modules over the year on employee share ownership for the teams in France and the redesign of the dedicated website for Castor and Castor International further enhanced the distribution and visibility of these key initiatives with employees.
Profit-sharing and incentive plans
The Group’s commitment to sharing the benefits of its performance is also illustrated by other arrangements to share the value that it creates. In France, the profit-sharing and incentive plans are the best examples of this. At the end of 2024, 97% of employees in France benefited from incentive and/or profit-sharing plans (95.6% in 2023). VINCI paid out higher amounts in France under profit-sharing and incentive plans than in the previous year (a total of €273 million in 2024, up from €240 million in 2023). Thanks to these plans, a large majority of Group employees in France benefit directly from the performance of their local employer.
Retirement plans
In France, the Group’s collective retirement savings plan, Percol-G Archimède, enhances the range of savings plans offered by VINCI for Group companies. First established to allow employees to offset reduced income from mandatory pension plans, the plan was revised to take advantage of new provisions introduced with France’s new Pacte law (an action plan for business growth and transformation), which took effect on 1 January 2021. The plan enables employees to save for retirement under more attractive terms, with employer matching contributions. From 1 January 2022, these contributions were increased for workers and office employees, technicians and supervisors, equal to 200% for up to €200 and 100% for up to €400, resulting in a maximum employer contribution of €600 for €400 paid in. Employer contributions for managers have remained unchanged, at a maximum of €400. Employer contributions to the Group’s collective retirement savings plan totalled €17 million in 2024 for France, compared with the €16 million contributed in 2023.
In 2013, VINCI established a defined contribution supplementary pension plan in France called Reverso for executives and other management-level personnel. Also amended to comply with the Pacte law, this plan complements Percol-G Archimède. Financed 50/50 by the employee and the company, it is available to all Group subsidiaries in France and combines the technical, financial, social and tax advantages of a company pension plan with those of an individual plan. By the end of 2024, it had been adopted by nearly 87% of the Group’s companies in France, thus covering 737 entities and 54,620 employee subscribers. VINCI’s contribution to the plan totalled over €13.5 million in 2024.
Long-term incentive plans
Each year, VINCI sets up a long-term incentive plan, in the form of performance shares that vest after three years. In addition to financial and economic criteria, the vesting of shares in awards is linked for 25% to ESG performance criteria, focused on the environment, safety and increasing the presence of women in leadership roles. Vesting is also subject to continued employment within the Group at the end of the three-year period. Nearly 10% of the Group’s managers benefit from these plans (for further details, see paragraph 5.2.1, “Existing performance share plans”, of chapter C, “Report on corporate governance”, pages 165 to 166).
Living wage
VINCI recognises its employees’ right to work in a rewarding and motivating environment, where they receive fair compensation that is proportional to their work and sufficient to ensure a decent standard of living, meeting essential needs such as food, housing, transportation, education and healthcare.
The Group has launched an analysis of pay levels across its workforce, and a review covering more than 40% of its employees is under way. To do this, the Group is working with Fair Wage Network, which collects and analyses cost-of-living data across different countries and regions to calculate living wage levels. Nominal salaries can then be benchmarked against these target pay levels. In a country like the United Kingdom, where this issue has been in the spotlight for a long time, attracting attention from civil society, the private sector and the authorities, the Group subsidiary VINCI Facilities UK (VINCI Construction) has worked with the leading national body in this field, the Living Wage Foundation, and been accredited as a Recognised Living Wage Service Provider.
Within the VINCI Group, this issue is covered by a dedicated working group, made up of human resources directors from across the various business lines. The review will continue in 2025, during which data on nominal salaries will be updated to account for changes in wages. This initiative will also be extended to other entities and countries. In 2025, data will be compared and analysed with Fair Wage Network and with a second database compiled by Wage Indicator. The results of these two consecutive reviews will be examined in depth by the human resources departments of the business lines to determine whether any action plans need to be implemented.
Social protection
In 2022, VINCI began rolling out a universal social protection framework, to help unify employees around the Group, with the idea to provide support for all its employees faced with certain key life events. This framework was approved by the Executive Committee. From January 2025, it will offer minimum guarantees to all employees under contract with a Group company, irrespective of their business line, employee category or country of operation, in two key areas of social protection: social insurance and parental benefits.
