Social strategy

The women and men of Getlink are at the heart of the value created by the Group and their commitment is the prerequisite for any performance. That is why we strive every day to promote the inclusion and diversity of our teams, to guarantee their health and safety, to develop their skills and to attract new talents.

 

Promoting inclusion and diversity in teams

For Getlink, diversity, equity and inclusion are major drivers of team commitment and attractiveness. These dimensions contribute to the organisation’s performance by turning everyone’s differences into strengths.

Guaranteeing equal treatment for men and women

The Group’s commitment in this area is reflected in the application of an equitable policy in terms of recruitment, access to training, remuneration and promotion for all team members throughout their careers. This policy is also applied in the process of identifying high-potential individuals and of appointing leaders.

Published in July 2020, the Charter on professional equality between women and men has given rise to an action plan due to expire at the end of 2023, with the following targets:

  • At least 25% of women promoted by total number of promotions
  • Guaranteed equal pay for men and women with equal pay for equal work, experience and qualifications
  • From 2022 onwards, several Group entities will set aside a specific budget of 0.2% of the payroll to reduce inequalities linked to gender or other discriminatory criteria.

Promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities

Following a assessment carried out in partnership with Agefiph, an action plan was drawn up and shared with the employee representative bodies. It focuses on five main areas:

  • managing disability issues in the workplace;
  • information and communication (internal and external);
  • supporting career development and job retention;
  • integration and the development of partnerships with the assisted and disability sectors;
  • recruitment and integration.

In 2022, a number of awareness-raising initiatives on disability enabled employees to share their experiences, as well as organising a forum in partnership with the region’s disability and assisted sector companies.

For example, by 2022, the employment rate for people with disabilities at Eurotunnel France will be 4.5%: we are committed to making progress in this area.

Enabling everyone to feel like themselves

Getlink is working to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion by taking part in awareness-raising initiatives in partnership with associations during Pride Month, including presentations by the associations Fiertés Pas-de-Calais, l’Autre Cercle and FFLAG*, as well as a communications campaign and sales to raise funds for the associations.

* FFLAG: Association in the UK providing information for friends and families of gay, lesbian and bisexual people.

Creating a fulfilling working environment

Getlink is committed to building a working environment that fosters the personal development of each employee, through concrete actions in the areas of prevention, training and measures to promote well-being at work.

Preventing psychosocial risks

Introduced in 2009 for ESGIE employees, the charter on the handling of psychosocial risks gave rise in 2015 to a company agreement whereby days off can be awarded in the event of illness of a child or partner. This agreement was extended to the whole Group in 2023 and also applies to employees who are carers.

Measures to promote well-being at work and mental health have been taken in all the Group’s subsidiaries. At Europorte, a platform offers all employees the opportunity to talk confidentially with coaches or expert psychologists about professional or personal issues of concern to them. An equivalent system exists for all Group employees in France and the UK.

Boosting team commitment

 

Creating the conditions for constructive social dialogue

Getlink attaches great importance to social dialogue and has a long history of working to establish lasting and constructive industrial relations. All teams within the Group and its various subsidiaries have free access to independent employee representation organisations and are covered by collective agreements.

In 2022, 23 majority agreements were signed at subsidiary and Group level, notably on professional equality, the introduction of a time savings account, profit-sharing and the employee savings plan.

Promoting respect in the workplace and combatting harassment

Getlink has created an awareness-raising module entitled “Respect in the workplace”, which has been rolled out to all Group employees. This module provides information on how to prevent all forms of harassment and raises awareness of the rules on nondiscrimination in recruitment. The Group runs regular poster campaigns and reminders on the subject.

Attracting and developing talent

The attractiveness of our professions is a strategic factor in the success of the Group’s projects. For this reason, we pay the utmost attention to the recruitment, training and development of our teams and to the management of career paths.

Promoting apprenticeships

In 2022, as business picks up after the Covid-19 pandemic, and in order to secure skills for the years to come, Eurotunnel relaunched its programme to promote apprenticeships:

  • In the UK, around 20 apprentices joined the company in 2022, some of them for a period of three years.
  • In France, the apprenticeship programme will be relaunched at the start of the school year in September 2023.

Encouraging women to enter our professions

In 2023, Getlink signed a partnership agreement with the Elles bougent association to help schoolgirls and female students discover our businesses through exchanges with mentors from the Group.

 

 

Getlink is therefore committed to encouraging exchanges between the mentors and the young girls by organising meetings or taking part in external events (sector meetings, InnovaTech challenge, “Réseaux et Carrières au féminin” forum, etc).

Our honorary patron Linda Maisano, Director of Rail Operations, Planning and Transformation at Eurotunnel

Leading the way in learning technologies for rail training

As a nationally recognised training organisation for railway operators, CIFFCO (Centre International de Formation Ferroviaire de la Côte d’Opale) has expanded its range of training courses, including by investing in new stateof-the-art mobile driving simulators and in the renovation of its cab simulator. In this way, it is anticipating the needs of its customers and developing skills in rail professions, which are also professions of the future.

CIFFCO also trains internal teams in all the skills needed to develop the Group’s activities.

CIFFCO has been QUALIOPI certified since 2022, following an audit by AFNOR. This certification recognises the quality of our services.

Valuing collective and individual performance in remuneration

The Group takes care to balance individual and collective measures in its performance recognition schemes.

In addition to individual performance recognition schemes (salary increases, bonuses etc), the Group has introduced:

  • a profit-sharing scheme based on the achievement of collective short- and mediumterm objectives;
  • employee savings plans with matching contributions;
  • employee share ownership, which aims to involve employees in the Group’s results over the long term, by allocating free shares to all employees annually for more than ten years, and performance shares to senior management and key managers.