Social

GRI 3-3

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 wider Swatch Group family is essential to the company’s success.

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 2024, the proportion of women in the total workforce was 49% and 36% 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 405–2

Equal pay and pay reviews

To ensure compliance with the Gender Equality Act  and the Ordinance on the Evaluation of the Wage Equality Analysis in Switzerland, Swatch Group is proceeding yearly with a wage equality analysis.  
The wage equality is carried out using a scientific and legally compliant method.

As of 2024, this analysis will also be mandatory for companies with a workforce of under 100 employees in certain Swiss cantons. Thanks to our proactive approach, the relevant results are already available.

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 monthly salary 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 used the Logib analysis to review all 31 Swiss companies with over 100 employees for the reference month of December 2023. There were no indications that one of the 31 companies would exceed the tolerance threshold for wage discrimination. 

Swatch Group carried out the same analysis and used the same method for 15 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 15 companies evaluated would exceed the tolerance threshold for wage discrimination. 

Results of wage analysis

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

Wage equality analyses were also carried out for companies abroad, to the extent that this is provided for by the legislation in place locally. For the foreign entities that were analyzed, there were no indications that the tolerance threshold for wage discrimination had been exceeded. Overall, the wage analyses cover 69% of the workforce (Switzerland: 100%; international: 36%). 

For more details please see the pages 84 to 85 of this year's Sustainability Report.

GRI  407–1

Freedom of association and collective bargaining

At most of its Swiss companies, Swatch Group applies the CLA for the Swiss watch and microtechnology industry, which was concluded with the Employers’ Association of the Swiss watch industry and the Unia and Syna trade unions. This collective labor agreement was introduced for the first time in July 1937 and was concluded in May 2024 for the 16th time for the period from July 1, 2024, to December 31, 2029. The CLA regulates working hours, minimum wages, compensation for absences, modulated retirement and protection against dismissal. The CLA applies to approximately 15 000 employees of the Group.

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 2-30

Collective bargaining