Social performance
Working towards our objectives
Social data verification by the official auditor, KPMG
The quality of social reporting has been confirmed by an external evaluation.
It is essential to understand the Group's social performance and operational practices to be able to deploy homogenous management of our human resources on a global scale, or within projects to share best practice.
Our worldwide network of 600 correspondents collects, processes and consolidates 160 social indicators. Dedicated software improves the reliability of the collection and validation of data.
This information gives rise to analyses by geographic area, by country and by activity type. Veolia Environnement is one of the leaders of companies included in the CAC 40 stock exchange index in terms of the quality and coverage of published social information.Strong areas identified by Executive Management guide our social policy.
Thus, special investigations were carried out on different issues, concentrating on efforts made by our businesses :
- increased loyalty of employees;
- reduction of absenteeism;
- safe working conditions;
- reduction of temporary labor (fixed term contracts, temporary employees);
- development of professional training and skills, particularly by means of work-study contracts.
Diversity : driving force of our social policy
Diversity forms part of our social model. The special features of our four activities, the diversity of our local sites, and the heterogeneity of data that they produce, all confirm difficulties in monitoring general indicators applicable to the entire Group, as mentioned in studies carried out in 2007.
These studies emphasized the need to adapt our indicators to match local reality in the countries in which we operate, and to take better account of company acquisitions and operations taken over, that make significant and continuous changes to Veolia Environnement's operations scope.
In this context, it became necessary to apply minimal standards, which maintain the possibility of controlling the Group's commitment to match local realities. These standards provide more relevant criteria for a Group anchored in a diversity of contexts and a variety of activities.
Minimum social standards for diversity
Operating in extremely varied local context and involved in the promotion of diversity, we are in the process of developing minimum social standards.
For example, since 2002 Veolia Environnement has committed itself to a comparatively transparent remuneration policy. We compare the average remuneration of our employees to minimum local wages.
This 2006 comparison between guaranteed minimum or actual wages in 19 countries in which we operate shows that the Group's salaries are 2.2 times higher than the average minimum legal salaries in these countries (namely an average weighted salary of 26,566 Euros for Veolia Environnement compared with the minimum legal average salary of 12,008 Euros). Two-thirds of Veolia Environnement's employees are employed in these 19 countries.
