Initiative

Initiatives on gender equality

Summary of the initiative

Mercator is a retail chain, operating in hypermarkets, supermarkets and grocery stores.

Addressing gender roles: In Mercator reciprocity is used daily in the use of forms for feminine and masculine. The gender roles are addressed equally. The exception are legal acts, agreements etc., where the legal (masculine) language is used.

The same standards of employment, promotion, opportunities for personal or professional development and education apply to all employees, irrespective of gender, (this could also be seen in the number of women in managerial positions).

Promoting women in decision-making: Mercator is predominantly a female company, due to the fact that 74% of employees are women. Women co-workers have equally important roles in the process of decision-making. This structure applies also to the leaders and managers on all levels; 74% of all leaders in the company are women, 46% in top management and 38% in board. Mercator supports promotion of women to leading and managerial posts, due to the fact that “soft accession” in leading positions is more and more important.

Supporting work-life balance: Mercator gained the basic certificate "Family-Friendly Company" in 2007 and received the full certificate in December 2010. Even before this certificate was acquired, quite a few measures were introduced, with the aim of special attention to employees and their families, such as: i) promotion of healthy lifestyles and related activities; ii) shift work and other forms of working time are planned considering the needs of employees with pre-school children; iii) where permitted by the working process, parents get the opportunity to benefit from an additional day of paid leave for the first day of school in the first grade of primary school, also additional day of paid leave is given to employees to introduce a child to kindergarten; iv) activities for easier return to work from maternity leave are used.

Tackling the gender pay gap: The workers receive equal pay for equal work no matter of gender. The differences, which occur, are due to extra payments for special working conditions related to the distribution of working time (night work, overtime, Sunday work or work on statutory holidays and free days). Extra payments are of equal value for men and women but men tend to work more hours in these conditions and thereby receive higher payments due to this regard. The work in the organisation is organised in a way that young women with children work less in such unfavourable working hours.