Company
Umicore
Date of signature
17 October 2019 (renewal)
Signatories
CEO and HRD, IndustriAll Global Union General Secretary, Belgium national trade union organisations
Key objectives
“In this agreement, Umicore intends to bring together the priorities of its global social policy, in order to confirm its principles of sustainable development, as they relate to social aspects. […] This agreement aims to support the Umicore’s internationalisation in social mattersin accordance with The Umicore Way, its Code of Conduct and Human Rights Policy, and its Sustainable Procurement Framework for Cobalt.”
Duration
“This agreement enters into force as from 17 October 2019 for a limited duration of 4 years.It can be terminated at the end of the 4-year term by any of the signatory parties by registered letter, subject to an advance notice of at least six months.
Unless terminated as indicated above, the agreement is automatically extended for another 4 years.”
Applicable law
“This agreement is governed by Belgian law. Consequently, any disputes will fall within the exclusive competence of the Belgian courts.”
Implementation and dissemination
Implementation:
“It obliges senior management and employees at all levels to comply with, accept and promote the agreed objectives. The responsibility lies with the management of the individual operations, the employees and with the workers’ representatives, insofar as such a body exists.” (...) ""The unit/site management is responsible for implementing and assuring that the site adheres to this agreement"".
Dissemination:
“It will be made available to the management, the workers’ representatives and employees of all operations throughout the Group. It is communicated via the intranet and via the Business Group - Business Unit reporting lines and published on the website of IndustriALL Global Union.”
Review and monitoring
Monitoring:
""At Group level, a specific joint committee will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of this agreement. […] The joint monitoring committee will meet once a year. At this annual meeting, the external verifier of the sustainable development report will present his audit report. […] Major complaints about the implementation of this agreement, addressed to or about local and corporate management or employees’ representatives, will be reviewed, as well as corrective measures taken.”
Review
“As part of their monitoring competencies, the employee representatives of the monitoring committee can have every year a meeting with the employee representatives of one Umicore site […].""
Dispute settlement and sanctions
Dispute settlement:
“According to Umicore’s Code of Conduct, all employees have the right and duty to address issues and problems related to this agreement to their superior or, if they deem this is not to be appropriate, to the local or regional head of Human Resources of the heads of the Corporate Legal or Internal Audit Departments. This will not be to their detriment neither will it entail any sanctions. The concerns or complaints may be reported in the preferred language.”
"They may also raise any implementation-related issue with the union representation. This will not be to their detriment neither will it entail any sanctions."
“In the event of failure to implement this agreement, the following procedure shall apply:
• Difficulties that are specifically related to the implementation of this agreement shall be dealt with locally between the union(s) and management. The joint monitoring committee shall be kept informed of the development of the discussions and their result;
• If the issue cannot be resolved locally, it should be referred to the national level and handled between the union(s) and management;
• If no satisfactory solution is found, the issue should be referred to the joint monitoring committee.
In case of a deadlock, Umicore or IndustriALL Global Union may as the last resort terminate the agreement..”
Related texts
Global framework agreement 2015
Sustainable development agreement 2011
Main topic
Fundamental social rights,
Secondary topic(s)
environnment/ sustainability, digitalisation