IUF and Danone to begin negotiations on new agreement to protect against negative employment consequences of COVID-19

The IUF and Danone have committed to opening negotiations on measures to support workers and mitigate potentially negative employment consequences emerging during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

A joint statement recognizes that, as a priority, any future agreement will need to focus on identifying and protecting the most vulnerable workers within Danone. Criteria would include workers with low qualification levels and salaries, women and those at risk from systemic racism and discrimination.

Any new IUF/Danone agreement would give priority to repositioning workers within the company in the event that employment changes are proposed. This would be achieved by focusing on upskilling programmes that provide employees with new skills to facilitate internal repositioning within Danone but could also be of value and practical assistance in the broader jobs market. During the training, which could last up to two years, Danone would guarantee that workers retain their Danone employment contracts, salaries, and relevant benefits. Implementation would be through negotiations between IUF affiliates and management at local and national level while monitoring would take place through the established mechanism used to monitor all existing IUF-Danone agreements.