Social Dialogue

A member of the United Nations Global Compact since 2003, Crédit Agricole S.A. has made social dialogue one of the foundations of its Group project. This commitment is formalised in its Social dialogue policy published in 2023.

The Group attaches great importance to the development and maintenance of a rich social dialogue via Group and local bodies.

At Group level, social dialogue is embodied by two institutions that are common to Crédit Agricole S.A. and the Regional Banks:

• the European Works Council,
• the Group Committee. 

These works councils deal with Group-wide economic, social and financial issues. They were established by collective agreements at Group level.

In addition, the Consultative Committee is a specific body within the Crédit Agricole S.A. group. Its prerogatives are providing information and discussing the Group’s strategic projects, monitoring the Group’s results and the situation of employment.

The Group’s trade union representatives, who aim to strengthen local social dialogue, are appointed from within this Committee.

Lastly, two additional bodies, established via the GPEC Group agreement of 6 July 2012, are specifically dedicated to employment and the development of skills:

• the GPEC committee is in charge of monitoring the strategy and its foreseeable consequences on employment,
• the Skills and Capabilities Observatory conducts prospective analyses on changes in business lines and trends in employment.

At entity level, social dialogue is conducted through the Social and Economic Committees (Comité Social et Economique, or CSE) and their various commissions, as well as through negotiations with trade unions.

In 2021:

As an extension of adhering in December 2017 to the Global Deal, an international initiative in favour of social dialogue and upheld by the OECD, and as part of the strengthened social pact included in the Group's Human-centric project, an International Framework Agreement was signed on 31 July 2019 with UNI Global Union, the international trade union federation for the private services sector.

This agreement:

• reaffirms the respect of a number of fundamental human rights,
• promotes trade union rights, social dialogue, and freedom of association,
• provides for an action plan in each Group entity for the employment of people with disabilities,
• introduced as from 1 January 2021, 16 weeks of paid maternity leave for all women employees in France and abroad.

The Group's regularly reiterated belief is that transparent and responsible social dialogue at company level is the best way to strengthen mutual trust between management and employees and to support change. 

The signing of the International Framework Agreement illustrates this conviction and provides that in the event of restructuring, a social dialogue will be initiated in order to seek socially responsible solutions.

The quality of social dialogue plays a significant role in the balance of social relations that promote the development and performance of all the Group’s entities. To encourage this over the long term and to support social partners in the performance of their duties, Crédit Agricole S.A. signed an open-ended agreement on the career path of employee representatives on 8 March 2019.

This agreement provides for several types of action to promote commitment to staff representation, in particular as regards their career management and interviews, and special monitoring of compensation.