Unite in AXA reps attending the AXA European Works Council in Paris today, took the opportunity to raise the issue of the cost of living crisis and pay with AXA Group CEO Thomas Buberl.

This is what we said:

The cost of living crisis crisis is a trans-European issue. In many countries people are struggling with energy bills, the cost of food, increasing fuel prices, rising interest rates etc. The impact, of course, varies from country to country depending on the level of Government support and other factors, but regardless it is a major issue of an unprecedented scale faced by many AXA workers across the continent many who are now being forced to make extremely difficult choices this winter.

Like many financial institutions AXA reported a strong performance in the first half of 2022 with an increase in profits of 11% to €3.9 billion, following on from what you called an “excellent performance” the previous year with underlying earnings up 61% to €6.8 billion. 

Whilst we appreciate you need to maintain strict controls on issues such as Solvency 2, the immediate negative impact of the cost of living crisis on many employees is such that it is not unreasonable for employee representatives such as ourselves to ask what actions AXA are taking to help its vulnerable workers across Europe and also ask that it give some more consideration to the problems the employees are facing, rather than the size of the dividend given to shareholders in 2023 or billion Euro share buy-backs.

When confronted with the reality that some employees of this company are faced with decisions about either switching on the heating or eating, and when others will be soon seeing increases in their mortgage payments that could well see them lose their homes, can it be right for a company as rich and as strong as AXA to enforce a real term pay cut on its employees by insisting its entities implement below inflation pay rises on the very workers who generate the “excellent performance” and generate the company’s multi-billion Euro profits through their hard work.

Please do not think the good will of the employees will last if you make them worse off in real terms at such a desperate time. There is a very big risk of them becoming disengaged negatively impacting company performance. There is a very big risk to their metal health which will negatively impact company performance. There is a major risk of skilled employees leaving negatively company performance 

AXA is a good employer, it has a good reputation, please ensure that remains the case in 2023 by not penalising your employees by effectively cutting their pay with below inflation increases and negatively impacting their well being as well, just so the company can make a few million more Euros and pay the shareholders a few cents more.

Thomas Buberl responded: The cost of living crisis clearly concerns all of us. It is very frightening. AXA is a responsible employer and has taken action with financial support for less well off in France and UK, and will continue to look at this. AXA will address issue of inflation in current salary negotiations looking to balance short and medium term issues and we have no doubt will find a good solution through social dialogue.

The AXA European Works Council, with union representatives from AXA operations in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, Spain and the UK is being held in Paris.

The UK delegates are asking Group President Thomas Burberl questions on employee burn-out, surveillance of employees working from home and ethical insurance underwriting.

The AXA European Works Council, with union representatives from AXA operations in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK is being held in Bristol.

The UK delegates are asking Group President Henri de Castries the following questions:

1.As big companies such as Accenture, JP Morgan and PWC move away from performance reviews, are there any plans for AXA to change the way we do Performance Management?

2. As the UK Government announces that companies should be publishing salaries and bonus differences between females and males, how confident is AXA that we are paying employees fairly with regard to gender. Will AXA have to manipulate bonus amounts so that they reflect a fair spread between females and males?

3. Do you know how many people are working flexibly across Europe? Do you look for trends by country at how many flexible working contracts are there, are some countries doing better than others?

4. Travel to work forms part of working hours- time spent travelling to and from first and last appointments by workers without a fixed office should be regarded as working time the European court of justice has ruled- potentially AXA could be in breach of working time regulation, what plans has the company got at a European level to combat this?

5. When will AXA be brought into 2015, and issue smart phones and tablets as standard to those job roles and grades warranting the use, instead of old Nokia’s and blackberries – again the higher levels have them?

6. What plans have AXA got to improving systems to ensure we do not keep losing business days as has happened throughout Europe in the last few weeks?

The 2015 AXA European Works Council, with union representatives from AXA operations in Belgium. France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK is being held in Bristol.

The UK delegates are asking Group President Henri de Castries the following questions:

1. The UK Government has committed to hold an in/out referendum on British membership of the EU by 2017. The Confederation of British Industry has called on employers to “turn up the volume” on the dangers to business an exit would cause and Airbus UK president Paul Khan has stated that future investment and thousands of jobs would be put at risk if the UK left the EU. Will you commit AXA to “turn up the volume” and publicly warn of the dangers to businesses and jobs that an EU exit would cause to the UK?

2. As digital change is inevitable and will accelerate as we head towards 2020 and beyond.  Will HDC assure the EWC that robust and adequate training and development needs will be put in place to give existing staff a fair opportunity to adapt to new models of work. The UK has concerns that a particular age group of people are more vulnerable to these changes and may not be given an opportunity to prove themselves?

3. Earlier this year Vodafone committed to introduce a worldwide minimum of maternity pay, 16 weeks fully paid maternity pay and full pay for a 30 hour week for the first six months upon returning to work. Whilst this will cost Vodafone $28bn, this will be offset by the current costs of $47bn Vodafone incurs in recruitment replacing women who leave after having a baby. Will AXA commit to such a similar enlightened global policy which will benefit both employees and the employer?

4. Stress is becoming an increasing concern in the workplace. We understand that AXA France has recently undertaken a company wide workplace stress survey. Will you commit to run this in all the other European countries so a better understanding can be achieved in seeing how widespread the problem is?

AXA’s European Works Council is meeting in Warsaw with employee representatives attending from Belgium,  France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Group CEO Henri de Castries addressed the employee representatives, telling them how the group had delivered solid results in 2012, that there was encouraging momentum with the company was on track with AXA Ambition and that he was now planning towards 2030.

Delegates raised a number of issues with him including the global economic situation, youth employment, cost reduction, offshore operations, social dialogue, global IT and bank operations and corporate social responsibility.

The UK delegation asked the CEO questions on cost management, gender equality, his participation in the Bilderberg Group and pensions.

AXA’s European Works Council is meeting at the group headquarters in Paris with employee representatives attending from Belgium,  France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Group CEO Henri de Castries gave a generally upbeat message on AXA‘s global position despite the worldwide economic crisis before facing questions from delegates on a range of subjects from AXA‘s profitability in Europe, dialogue with employee representatives, lean management and the AXA Ambition project.

AXA Group President Henri de Castries was challenged over the alleged sacking of several workers at AXA‘s offshore centre in Morocco for being union members by French EWC delegates.

De Castries responded that he had been advised that the workers in question were members of an illegal trade union and had resigned not been dismissed. However, due to the difference between the information received from Morocco he agreed that he would investigate the allegations and respond at the September EWC Bureau meeting.

AXA’s European Works Council is meeting in Rome with delegates attending from Belgium,  France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Group CEO Henri de Castries addressed the employee representatives, explaining his vision for development of the group with much emphasis on technological evolution, especially the need to embrace the opportunities of the internet. He feels that the most technologically developed entities are the most successful and the challenge is to get traditional entities up to speed (or as he put it “the elephants need to run at the same speed as the antelopes”).

A copy of Henri de Castries presentation to the AXA European Works Council has been uploaded to the EWC website here.

AXA’s European Works Council is meeting in Dublin with delegates from Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxemburg, Poland, Portugal and Spain as well as the United Kingdom and Ireland. Group CEO Henri de Castries is addressing the employee representatives, outlining AXA Ambition and his plans for Selectivity, Efficiency and Acceleration with much emphasis on opportunities the emerging markets especially Brazil, China, India, Mexico and Turkey.

Delegates have raised issues of a malaise amongst employees, living in fear of the impact of lean management, a lack of meaningful social dialogue and more cost cutting threatening job security.