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Interview
Arantxa Lobo,
head of equality at FCC
Industrial e Infraestructuras
Energéticas
FFCC Industrial e Infraes-
tructuras Energéticas (FCC
llE) has been awarded the
“Equality in the Company”
seal in recognition of its
equal treatment and oppor-
tunities policies. What work
is carried out by FCC llE
in this field?
The criteria that are valued the most in awar-
ding the seal is the incorporation of efficient
measures that ensure equal opportunities
as a core principle of the company and the
consideration of women’s talent as a source
of strength in the work teams.
For FCC IIE, communication and aware-
ness are essential for socialising the value of
equality and for promoting the attraction and
retention of female talent. Equality aware-
ness means becoming aware and building
new knowledge that generates relationships
among the men and women in the workfor-
ce based on equality.
FCC IIE has implemented an Equality Plan
that backs, supports and promotes the ma-
nagement of equality in the Company.
What measures contemplated in
the FCC IIE Equality Plan would you
highlight?
FCC IIE Equality Plan contemplates several
measures of interest to all personnel. These
include facilitating work-life balance, equal
opportunities for training, promotion, and a
protocol on the issue of harassment at work.
The Plan also contains measures to promote
the incorporation of female workers in jobs
of responsibility, for example, training, such
as the course organised by the Industrial
Organization School (EOI, Spanish acronym)
for women with pre-management potential.
The plan was disseminated among the staff,
distributing leaflets on equal opportunities
and harassment prevention.
Based on your own experience following
the signature of the 1st FCC IIE Equality
Plan in 2012: what aspects do you con-
sider the most important to ensure that
it is implemented satisfactorily?
To ensure the proper functioning of the
Equality Plan, it is necessary to define and
establish control mechanisms that enable
self-criticism and reflection on the scope
of its implementation. Throughout the en-
tire preparation of the Plan, it is necessary
to count with the participation of the entire
company: Management, Human Resour-
ces, and Trade Union Representation, and
also with the Monitoring and Assessment
Committee.
The Company must also incorporate the
equality value in its day-to-day business,
both in its organizational structure, as well
as in all personnel and business processes.
It must also socialise this value among the
entire workforce (management, middle-ma-
nagement, administrative and technical staff,
etc.).
What is the impact at the corporate level
of the measures implemented, such as
work-life balance and joint responsibili-
ty?
In my opinion, the great step that has to be
taken to achieve equality is precisely work-
life balance and joint responsibility. Although
society is certainly evolving towards an equal
distribution of tasks, for most women, their
main role has to do with family roles and tho-
se of a domestic nature.
Despite the measures on flexibility that exist
and are available for women and men, the
female workers are the ones that take ad-
vantage of these measures more frequently,
opting to reduce their working day, for exam-
ple, with the related consequences in terms
of salary and future pensions as well as their
professional growth.
In order to advance on this issue, the FCC
IIE Equality Plan contemplates measures to
ensure that the work-life balance rights will
not lead to any type of discrimination in re-
lation to training, promotion, salary or any of
the other issues contemplated in the Plan.