Anita Norwak, Secretary General of the Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) and Giovanni Ferrario, Chief Operating Officer of Italcementi

It is a real charter of the workers’ rights and is valid all over the world. The document focuses on the guarantees and protection of the basic rights of more than 23,000 employees who work in all the Group’s plants, at subsidiaries in 22 countries, without racial or sexual discrimination. Moreover, Italcementi also intends promoting the same principles with third parties, such as contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers.

The agreement is based on the joint commitment of the signatories to respect all the fundamental human and trade union rights - as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at work as well as relevant ILO Conventions and jurisprudence and OECD guidelines on Multinational Companies – and to promote improvement of working conditions and health and safety at the workplace as well as to develop democratic industrial relations and foster fair collective bargaining procedures with trade union representatives.

These principles, which the Italian company has always considered to be its main assets since its foundation, are thus punctually implemented in all the countries in which the Group operates, if necessary going beyond the requirements of local laws, where they are less stringent. With this protocol, in line with the Group’s policies of Sustainable Development, Italcementi guarantees and protects these basic rights irrespective of the geographical areas in which it operates.

The great attention paid to people and to working conditions, topics that the Group had already formally communicated through the Charter of Values in 2006, can be summarized in the following list:
 
1. Observance of freedom of association and the right to collective negotiation;
2. Free job choice, with rejection of the use of forced labor;
3. Non-discrimination at the workplace;
4. Refusal of the use of child labor;
5. Payment of salaries that guarantee subsistence;
6. Reasonable working hours;
7. Health and safety for the workers;
8. Workers’ welfare;
9. Training for required skills;
10. Written employment agreement

The BWI is the Global Union Federation grouping free and democratic unions with members in the Building, Building Materials, Wood, Forestry and Allied sectors. The BWI groups together around 350 trade unions representing around 12 million members in 135 countries. BWI mission is to promote the development of trade unions in the building and wood sectors throughout the world and to promote and enforce workers rights.