Employment of people with disabilities, a commitment to equal opportunities
The 15th Disability Week takes place from 14 to 20 November 2011. For 15 years, it has been raising awareness about the employment of persons with disabilities. Being by vocation a diversified company, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has opted to make this diversity one of its strategic priorities. Focusing on a commitment which encourages it to remain open to the world and to develop with it.
In France at present, the unemployment rate for handicapped people is twice the national average. To develop thinking, Disability Week was created in 1997 by the French association L’ADAPT (Association pour l’insertion sociale et professionnelle des personnes handicapées). Each year it advocates employment of the disabled by:
• demonstrating experience that works
• proposing priorities for progress
• bringing to mind in a practical manner a subject which should involve the whole of society
The results of these actions are promising. After 15 years’ existence, the event continues to mobilise more and more people and has found its way into the social calendar. For its 2011 programme, a series of meetings between recruiters and disabled candidates will take place right across the territory: Handicafés©, Jobdatings© and Forums for employment, but also many awareness-raising and advocacy actions and discussions to create a link and to challenge existing thinking about those with disabilities in business.
Key disability figures
According to France’s Health Ministry, in 2010 there were:
• 5 millions disabled people in France, of whom 2 million had reduced mobility.
• 1.2 million people aged over 16 declaring one or several disabilities which restrict activity.
• One third of the disabled workforce in unemployment
• 1.5 % of the adult population affected by isolated motor impairment
Social revolution is under way
Businesses are aware of these issues and are showing an increasing interest in the issue of good practice for integrating disabled employees and the importance of sharing. Increasingly, employers are approaching specialised bodies such as Cap Emploi or l’AGEFIPH, in order to create more appropriate solutions. SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has completely integrated this change. The Group has made diversity a pillar of its strategy and a priority of its human resources policy. Its Diversity programme launched in 2010 is deployed around five priorities including recruitment and assisting people who have a handicap. At the end of 2010:
• the group employed 1,105 disabled personnel, which amounts to 2.13% of employees,
• 81 employees with disabilities were recruited in the course of the year
• the majority (80 %) of employees identified as disabled work in France or in Germany, countries in which the Group is active and which have had an incentive-based legislative framework on the issue for several years.
Further strengthening social and societal commitments
To strengthen its social and societal commitments, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has created a disability scheme (Mission Handicap) intended to work on this subject in a cross-functional way with all of its French subsidiaries by pooling, valuing and developing good practice. For this purpose:
• awareness-raising and communication activities are organised
• specialised training for managers deployed to facilitate integrating people
• monitoring of careers undertaken
• contact is made with schools to promote the integration of young people having a disability, on work experience schemes or on work-study contracts
At Lyonnaise des Eaux, the national client management platform “Essor”, which is the result of a partnership with Paralysés de France, the main French association for people with physical disabilities, has created 25 jobs for employees affected by a disability. At Degrémont, a national-level agreement aiming in particular to recruit at least 17 workers with disabilities over a two-year period was signed in 2010 with the aim of achieving an employment rate of 2%. All of these actions are moving towards the same objective: achieving an employment rate of 6% of persons having a handicap within SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT and its French subsidiaries.
