FCC Construcción

FCC Wins CC.OO. Award for Employers’ Social Responsibility

The CC.OO. trade union's Building and Wood Foundation appreciates FCC's work to encourage employees to become involved voluntarily in a solidary network.

Fernando Serrano, president of the foundation and secretary-general of FECOMA CC.OO, was the dignitary in charge of handing the award to Esther Koplowitz, who thanked him on behalf of all the employees of the Citizen Service Group. In his speech, Serrano stressed Esther Koplowitz's importance and her entrepreneurship, as evidenced by the fact that she has forged FCC into one of our country's most important firms. For the leader of the trade union's Building and Wood Foundation, "To talk about companies is to also to talk about their primary capital: their workers. Because when workers have the right training, and when their effort is acknowledged and appreciated, they constitute the company's number-one asset: its human capital."

The union leader went on to say, "We have to applaud companies when, far from decapitalizing their primary asset, they build it up; and when, far from destroying jobs, they maintain them, despite the crisis; and when they grasp the fact that social dialogue and the role trade unions play within the company make the company stronger."

This is the first year the foundation has given out the Employers' Social Responsibility Awards. The CC.OO. foundation also singled out OHL as the winner in the "Commitment to People" category, for "showing a marked interest in creating a stable framework of relationships with its employees, while it has furthermore fostered education in human rights." The award was accepted by Luis García-Linares, the group's corporate general manager, from the hands of Manuel González Blanco, manager of the Construction Labour Foundation's Sub-national Council for Madrid.

The third award category was "Commitment to the Environment". That distinction went to Tragsa, for "its initiatives to make its business activities more conducive to the sustainability of the natural spaces where it operates, and for its institutional contribution to the recovery and preservation of the environmental heritage." The award was accepted by Fe Meitín, the company's Human Resources Manager, from the hands of Delfín Martín, on behalf of award sponsor La Caixa.

After referring to the situation of "never-before-seen" crisis in Spain, Fernando Serrano explained, "Employers' social responsibility has gradually become the pattern we use to analyze businesses' behaviour. We also use it to judge businesses' tie to and performance with people, the community and the environment. That is why we at the foundation hope, through these awards, to acknowledge the finest company initiatives, so they can give an example of progress to other companies and set the standard by which we measure a job well done."