Our human capital is our other great cornerstones and the main driver of business change. Our commitment to the subject of corporate social responsibility is based on policies that guarantee equal opportunities, promote training, foster balance, prevent occupational risks, monitor health and ensure safety.
Our Equality Plan, developed with workers' representatives and incorporated into the Group's Labour Regulations, sets out fundamental measures for advancing equality, such as the integration of gender perspective into management.
Download our 1st Equality Plan (pdf)
For historical reasons, the railway has been a male-dominated sector. At Renfe, we are actively working on increasing the female ratio within our company's workforce, lending more visibility to the important work they have always done and studying the possibility of implementing programmes that are expressly aimed at women, focusing on areas in which they have been traditionally less present: train drivers, workshop staff and activities relating to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The Technical Committee for Equality and Social and Labour Issues, which arose from the signing of our 2nd Collective Bargaining Agreement, is a group that is working with the workers' legal representatives on matters to help make progress in the area of equality and balance. Among other measures, there is a plan to create an hours allowance of up to 5% of the working year for taking care of the elderly, people with disabilities and minors.
This measure will be in addition to others already in our regulations, such as: flexible hours, option of choosing shifts, intensive working days, reduced hours for caring for a child under 12, priority when holiday calendars are being drawn up or position being kept during time off to care for dependants.
We are immersed in a process of cultural transformation to generate an environment of inclusion among our more than 14,000 employees through diversity from a gender, cultural, professional and generational perspective.
Our commitment to employees also leads us to work on extending company benefits and making progress on real work-life balance.
Some of these company benefits are guarantees in addition to social security benefits during temporary incapacity, training programmes, reduction in the price of train tickets, and accident and life insurance.
Occupational health and safety are part of our DNA. We have been focused on preventive health campaigns for our employees for years. We have signed an agreement with the Fundación Española del Corazón (Spanish Heart Foundation) and we are a 'heart-healthy company'. We have installed defibrillators in offices, workshops and Cercanías (Commuter) stations.
And because there is no greater way to promote health than sport, we involve our workers in the main fun runs that also have a social goal, such as the Carrera de la Mujer (Women's Run), the Carrera del Corazón (Heart Run) and the Oxfam Intermón Trailwalker.