We welcome the fact that by setting a floor of principles and rights at European level, this agreement paves the way for European workers to be on equal footing with one another.

•    The agreement creates a governance for jobs and skills at the company by anticipating impact and evolutions in business in line with current market trends and company’ ambition;

•     It sets clear objectives for boosting employees’ employability, and for enriching the workforce by diversity and digital generation recruitment

•     It reinforces constructive social dialogue at European and local level within the company.

“With this agreement, Schneider Electric made commitments towards all its European employees to support the strengthening of their employability and the promotion of their career development.” commented, Luc Triangle, industriAll Europe, General Secretary. “We welcome the fact that by setting a floor of principles and rights at European level, this agreement paves the way for European workers to be on equal footing with one another. This agreement now needs to be turned into reality in the workplace. Social dialogue is a key tool to implement it at local level” he added.

Laure Collin, Chair of the European Works Council and Senior Vice President of Human Resources – Europe Operations for Schneider Electric, said: “We are proud to have reached this agreement with industriAll Europe. It will enable Schneider Electric and our 45,000 employees in the 29 European countries to be better equipped to adapt to current challenges such as energy transition, digital transformation, evolving professions and increasing the number of young employees, while the company continues to pursue investment and growth.”

The two partners “acknowledge that this agreement sets out a new framework, based on shared principles for all Schneider Electric entities in Europe, to help anticipate changes and their impact on the Group’s employees.”

The key objectives of the agreement are to:

• Provide visibility to social partners and employees on Schneider Electric’s employment trends in Europe;
• Promote ongoing career development to help employees contribute to the transformations at the heart of the Group’s strategy;
• Maintain and further develop the company’s core skills;
• Boost a learning culture by offering at least seven hours of training per employee and per year;
• Manage our age pyramid by attracting new skills, mainly targeting the digital generation always keeping our future customer profile in mind. 

To reach these objectives, the agreement involves the creation of a European observatory for jobs and skills, designed to provide a global, shared vision of each business’s strategic priorities, and their challenges in terms of jobs, resources and skills.

The agreement will be monitored by a commission composed of a delegation from industriAll Europe, including members of the European Works Core Council. This commission will meet within six months of signing, and then every two years to report on the implementation of the agreement across Schneider Electric Group’s different entities.