Social

Employees, diversity and equal opportunities

Swatch Group’s employees come from a broad range of countries, belong to different ethnic groups and religions and have different sexual orientations and social statuses. Each subsidiary contains an intercultural mix of people with a wide variety of backgrounds, education levels, skills and talents. Embracing this diversity and integrating it into the larger Swatch Group family as a whole is essential to the success of the company.

Respect, fairness and equal treatment are the fundamental principles within the workforce and are key factors in the success of Swatch Group’s matrix organization. Openness and transparency of information are also encouraged throughout the Group. Employees and stakeholders know that the Group invests in job security and employee health and well-being, even in times of crisis.

Diversity

Swatch Group is committed to promoting diversity among its employees and, in particular, to increasing the proportion of women in management positions. At the end of 2023, the proportion of women in the total workforce was 49% and 37% in management positions, with a disproportionately high number in lower management. As management positions are primarily recruited internally, the conditions are set to sustainably increase the proportion of women in senior management positions in the long term. 

GRI disclosure 405–2

Equal pay and pay reviews

In accordance with Art. 13A ff of the revised Federal Act on Gender Equality (GEA) and the Ordinance on the Evaluation of the Wage Equality Analysis as at July 1, 2020, Swatch Group is required to carry out a wage equality analysis every four years for all Swiss companies with 100 or more employees, and to have this independently evaluated. The wage equality analysis must be carried out using a scientific and legally compliant method.

Swatch Group uses the Logib standard analysis tool, which is methodologically based on a semi-logarithmic OLS regression analysis and has been approved for use by the Federal Office for Gender Equality. This analysis checks, via a direct comparison of all employees of different genders, whether a difference in wage cannot be explained by objective, wage-relevant, non-discriminatory factors (education and training, length of service, work experience, performance level and professional status), and if it cannot, what proportion of the wage difference this relates to.

To carry out the analysis, the total of monthly components is standardized for all employees so that this corresponds to a full-time role with weekly working hours that are standard for the company.

If the null hypothesis is not rejected with a statistical significance of 5% (or accepted at 95%), there can be no assumption of wage discrimination. Otherwise, a check is carried out to determine whether there is a wage difference of over 5%, which would exceed the tolerance threshold for wage discrimination.

In accordance with the legal requirements, Swatch Group has used the Logib analysis to review all 33 Swiss companies with over 100 employees for the reference month of December during the analysis and reporting period of July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. There were no indications that one of the 33 companies would exceed the tolerance threshold for wage discrimination. In addition, the analysis method and the results were verified by Blaser Treuhand AG in Bern. In its reports, the auditor confirms that all legal requirements that apply to wage equality analysis were complied with in full, and that there were no findings to suggest that the wage equality analysis for the reference month of December during the analysis and reporting period from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 did not fully meet requirements for the evaluation of wage equality analysis.

Results of wage analysis

_{1. All figures are below the statistical significance level of 5%.}

There is no wage discrimination in any segment. Swatch Group carried out the same analysis and used the same method for 13 Swiss companies with a workforce of under 100 employees, even though this is not required by law. For these Swiss entities, there were no indications that one of the 13 companies evaluated would exceed the tolerance threshold for wage discrimination.
As of 2024, this analysis will also be mandatory for companies with a workforce of under 100 employees in certain Swiss cantons. As far as Swatch Group is concerned, the relevant results are already available.

Despite these good results, the Swiss companies have been conducting regular and systematic reviews to confirm wage equality and make prompt adjustments in the event of any discrepancies.

For example, a new equal pay analysis is currently being carried out based on the figures as of 2023. The results of this will be published in the Sustainability Report 2024.

For more details please see the pages 92 to 95 of this year's Sustainability Report.

GRI DISCLOSURE 407–1

Freedom of association and collective bargaining

At most of its Swiss companies, Swatch Group applies the collective labor agreement for the Swiss watch and microtechnology industry, which was concluded with the Employers’ Federation of the Swiss watch industry and the UNIA and SYNA trade unions. This collective labor agreement was first introduced in July 1937 and was concluded at the end of 2016 for the period from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2021. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was extended in 2021 until June 30, 2024. The CLA regulates working hours, minimum wages, compensation for absences, modulated retirement and protection against dismissal and applies to approximately 15 000 employees who work in the production facilities. 

Companies operating outside the CLA and abroad are encouraged to fully comply with the labor laws of the country and region concerned, and in particular to guarantee freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and minimum wages. All subsidiaries have committed to such measures,  and the risk of violation of freedom of association is considered to be low. 

↗ For information on the Employers’ Association of the Swiss watch industry,  see also p. 23 of this year's Sustainability Report.

GRI-Disclosure 2-30

Collective bargaining