Employee relations

The right to exercise freedom of association and collective bargaining is considered a crucial aspect:

*The difference is primarily due to companies in Austria, where industrial CAs cover all employees and not just those represented by trade unions, and also to MOL Romania where employee representatives are also entitled to sign CAs.

Employee representation is ensured via employee representative bodies:

• The European Workers’ Council (all companies in EU are represented proportionately, which keeps our staff constantly informed about decisions taken in different countries and about international practice and experience
• Local Workers’ Councils,
• Trade Unions,
• Committees of labour safety and
• Participation of employee representatives in the MOL Supervisory Board. (Although MOL Supervisory Board members are elected at the Annual General Meeting of shareholders, its employee representative members (one-third of the members) are elected by the MOL Workers’ Council, which takes trade union opinions into account.)

Collective bargaining is traditionally initiated by the employer at periodic intervals. Beyond legal requirements not only representative trade unions, but all employee representative bodies are invited to the bargaining process. Before significant operational changes trade unions and Workers’ Councils are informed in compliance with national legislation, and also according to the Collective Agreements of certain member companies (see some examples in the table below)

Direct, bilateral contact between management and employees is continuous through numerous programs:

• Management regularly reports on corporate activity to trade unions and Workers’ Council at joint meetings held to exchange opinions.
• Employee Forums: We organise Employee Forums 3-4 times each year where employees can ask questions from top managers and from the chief executive of MOL Group about daily news, economical, social, financial changes and actions taken which might affect them.
• „Without Taboos”: We organise (two-three times a year) a meeting which we call „Without Taboos”, where the representatives of certain topics consult on hot news and about future challenges, etc.
• Outdoor programs: In Hungary we organize more regional and/or organisational or corporate family days too, so our employees, their family and also our retired colleagues can visit at least one MOL event each year where they can informally meet MOL managers. Our colleagues form other countries are invited for the MOL Group Summer Party organised once a year. The total number of visitors for all these events reaches 10,000. One family day (Apollo day) was also organised in Slovakia with ca. 1000 participants.