BNP Paribas, IBM, Repsol and Sodexo have signed the International Labour Organization (ILO) Global Business and Disability Network Charter.
The French Minister of State for Disabled People and the Fight against Exclusion, Ségolène Neuville, attended the signing ceremony together with ILO Director-General Guy Ryder, as well as representatives from the European Union, trade unions, NGOs and academics.
The Charter expresses the commitment of the participating companies to promoting and including persons with disabilities throughout their operations worldwide.
It covers a wide range of areas, from protecting staff with disabilities from any kind of discrimination to making company premises and communication to staff progressively accessible to all employees with disabilities.
The Director General of ILO, Guy Ryder said for the intercontinental labour watch body, promoting decent work for people with disabilities remains a key objective.
“For the ILO, promoting decent work for people with disabilities is a key objective, and one which needs the active involvement of the private sector. I would like to welcome the four companies that are signing today the Global Business and Disability Charter, joining the eleven global companies that signed the Charter last October in Geneva. I hope that many of the other companies attending the meeting today will also consider doing so in the near future,” he told the meeting in Paris.
On his part, Mathilde Tabary, Director for Diversity and Social Development at Carrefour and Chair of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network, said: “The ILO Global Business and Disability Network has brought companies and other organizations working on disability inclusion closer together. Through the sharing of experience and examples of best practice, they work together so that people with disabilities can be more effectively integrated into the workplace. As Chairperson, I am delighted that this network is being extended today with the addition of four new signatories to the Charter.”
Tabary also stated that it was a great honour for Carrefour to be given the 2016 presidency of the Steering Committee of the Network.
The four companies are joining eleven other major companies that had signed the Charter when it was launched at the ILO headquarters in Geneva in October 2015.
They have also become members of the ILO Global Business and Disability Network, which bring businesses together to promote disability inclusion by highlighting the business advantages of employing people with disabilities. It also facilitates the exchange of knowledge and good practices between companies, company networks and the ILO.
Created in 2010, the Network acts as a facilitator and responds to requests from members to develop tools, share knowledge, and facilitate business-to-business meetings and dialogues around disability issues. It combines the interest of the ILO employer constituents and of multinational enterprises.
Statements from the four new members
Jean-Laurent Bonnafé, CEO of BNP Paribas, said: “The signature of this Charter strengthens the BNP Paribas’s overall non-discrimination and diversity policy. It expresses the desire of the Management of the Group to take a new step forward by encouraging a global worldwide innovative approach and by committing to go beyond legal requirements. BNP Paribas wants to contribute to change the way disability is perceived: sharing best practices with the ILO network is a great opportunity to reinforce the willingness of the Group and to reach this ambitious objective.”
Christian Bonnafont, Vice-President Software IBM France, submitted: “The most important asset of any company is its people. Businesses can only be as successful as the teams that drive them. At IBM we recognize people as central to business success. People with disabilities are just that – people who have training, education and experience to offer. By maximizing the previously untapped potential that people with disabilities bring to the work place, we walk the talk of embrac
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