The French cleaning industry is celebrating the diversity of its employees, writes Christian Bouzols.
The French cleaning federation and a number of partner organisations have recently signed a 'Diversity Charter' committing them to acknowledging the cultural and ethnic diversity of their employees and to fostering the rights of these workers to enjoy all the rights of French citizenship.
The signing of this charter was particularly relevant in an industry that is quite unique in its cultural and ethnic diversity. The purpose of the exercise was to encourage diversity and fight against all forms of discrimination within cleaning businesses.
It has to be said that this particular sector is more subject than most to cases of discrimination in view of the extreme diversity of its work force. French cleaning companies employ some 425,000 people of whom 66 per cent are women, more than 50 per cent are over 40, and 65 per cent have no diploma at all. In addition, 30 per cent of those workers are foreign. Such statistics underline the need to keep discrimination in all its forms under control, whether it is against women, older workers or workers coming from abroad.
According to this charter, the French federation of cleaning companies and other parties undertake to make their workers more aware of the importance of non discrimination and diversity, and to educate them in these areas. The charter obligates its signatories to respect and promote the principle of non discrimination at every stage of human resources management, such as recruitment, training and promotion.
This matter is particularly important at this time because French cleaning contractors have for some months had fingers pointed at them for practising discrimination in their selection processes, keeping some people away on the basis of their names, their gender and the colour of their skin.
The initiative of this charter was clearly to put the cleaning industry in a favourable light within this societal debate and to demonstrate that, in its daily business dealings, it upholds the principles of diversity - particularly at cultural and ethical levels - thus reflecting the nature of French society today. By signing, the industry also confirmed its intention of making a commitment to non discrimination and diversity.
Central to society
Indeed, the cleaning industry was one of the first to raise the issue of diversity as something central to French society. It remains to be seen whether this charter will actually make much difference on the ground, as it is only a charter and not a binding or enforceable agreement. Time will tell if discrimination will disappear entirely from the recruitment and advancement processes of cleaning companies. However regular appraisals will now be carried out on the basis of indicators that have been put into place. All this is pointing in the right direction.
The French cleaning industry had a turnover of €10 billion in 2007. Its 17,000 companies, of which 53 per cent were small businesses, employed 425,000 people of whom 66 per cent were women, 57 per cent over 40, and 30 per cent foreign, including 17 per cent from outside the EU. In addition, 84 per cent of cleaners were under work contracts for indefinite periods, and 16 per cent under fixed term contracts. Some 65 per cent of all workers were without a diploma of any kind, and it was planned to recruit between 10,000 and 15,000 new cleaners during 2009. |
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