IBERDROLA and the Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.), Sindicato Independiente de la Energía (SIE), Asociación de Técnicos y Profesionales de la Energía (Atype), Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) and Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) unions, which represent 66.67% of the company’s workforce, signed the group's V Collective Bargaining Agreement this morning in Bilbao.

IBERDROLA is the first company on the Ibex 35 to link pay with its operating results. Under the agreement, the company's employees will receive an annual increment of 1% which will increase by 0.5% per year if the company meets 100% of the target for operating results, or 2.5%, rising to a maximum of 3.5% if the target is exceeded by 120%. 

The agreement was signed by the company’s head of human resources, Ramón Castresana, and the head of human resources for Spain, Álvaro Murga, on behalf of IBERDROLA. During the ceremony, Castresana emphasised that the agreement marked “a pivotal moment of cultural change, with both parties having undertaken to strengthen the company's results by assuming risks and joining forces in a common project.”

The new agreement benefits 9,000 professionals including the 1,200 employees of the subsidiaries IBERDROLA RENOVABLES and IOMSA. This collective will benefit from the continuous working day, with the margin for arrival and departure extended to 39 minutes in the coming years.  The company will continue to step up its social commitment with its workforce and remains fully focused on providing quality employment. It will maintain target-related variable compensation, from which 100% of the workforce already benefits, and all new staff members will continue to be offered open-ended contracts. 40% of these contracts correspond to employees who are university graduates.

IBERDROLA will also endeavour to ensure that its workforce continues to receive first class training. In 2010 the group’s employees in Spain received 400,000 hours of training, which means 95% of the workforce took part in a course last year.

IBERDROLA’s social commitment

IBERDROLA will also retain the social policies that it has developed over the years so that its team continues to enjoy the work-life balance measures backed by the group’s senior management.

Accordingly, employees may now request a reduction in their working hours if they are the legal guardian of children under the age of twelve (companies are legally required to consider such requests from the guardians of children up to the age of eight) and paid leave for the marriage of parents or siblings has now been introduced.

It has also been agreed that the company will offer its employees crèche and transport cheques, improving both work-life balance and remuneration. IBERDROLA will also take into account absences for certain reasons (i.e. hospitalisation) in the calculation of holiday entitlement.

Another innovation in the new collective agreement is that employees working shifts will benefit from four annual rest days per year worked, enabling them to take earlier retirement.

In addition, certain measures already in place will be maintained. These include allowing employees who are new parents to reduce their working hours to five per day until the child's first birthday with no affect on basic pay, the right to 15 calendar days’ paid leave prior to the expected due date and the extension of leave of absence to three years for care of children or of a family member up to a second degree of kinship, with access to professional training.

The company has also incorporated into the text of the V Collective Agreement the group's equality plan. Signed in 2009, this includes pioneering initiatives in the Spanish business community such as measures to protect victims of gender violence.

IBERDROLA will provide psychological, medical and legal assistance to employees who provide legal confirmation that they are experiencing violence of this nature and will bear up to 50% of the victim’s rent costs if he or she is forced to abandon their home.

This social model, committed to the professional excellence and life quality of employees, has prompted more than 60% of IBERDROLA employees to acquire shares in the company, underscoring the involvement of the group’s professional team in the company’s management and its support for the value creation model.

The strength of the relationship between the IBERDROLA group and its employees means both parties are fully prepared to assume the risks that will be faced over the coming years and to join forces in pursuit of common goals.