European Federations and management ENGIE hold annual meeting on application European Labour Agreement

EWC ENGIE Social Agreement

(12 December 2018) The union delegations of EPSU and IndustriAll-Europe negotiated a comprehensive agreement on labour relations with ENGIE in 2016. This agreement looks at training, voluntary mobility in the company and it seeks to foster social dialogue and provides social guarantees in case of restructuring. Funds to support the training and mobility are part of the agreement. (Around 100 million EUR per year). The training related to competences and skills of all workers and is forward looking taking account of developments in the sectors. Anticipation of change is a key part and obliges the company to consider how jobs are effected for example by new technologies and digitalization but also climate change. Certain power plants might have to close and how the company prepares the workers for this through training and mobility is one of the discussions. The company is on its way to set up a sort of energy transition schools to assist and share practices.  

The annual evaluation looks at what has been done in the different Business Units and how local companies (management and unions) are implementing the agreement. Problems were noted which the unions and workers’ representatives have encountered the past year. These often related to it not being sufficiently clear at local level how the agreement should be read. While much information about the implementation is available, it is fragmented and the unions suggested to bring the info more together. The meeting took place in the headquarter of ENGIE in Paris, 11 December 2018.  Delegates came from Austria, France, Netherlands, Roumania, UK.  EPSU was represented by the General Secretary.