Repsol won the eighth edition of the Fundación Empresa y Sociedad prize in the Disability category for the work it has actively carried out with disabled people since 2005.
Repsol’s Executive Director for People, Cristina Sanz, had the honour of collecting the award from the First Vice President of the Spanish government, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega. The ceremony was also attended by the Chairman of Fundación Empresa y Sociedad, Juan Arena de la Mora, as well as representatives of the awardwinning companies in the other categories.
In her speech, Cristina Sanz affirmed that “for Repsol, the integration of the differently abled goes beyond legal obligations and our commitment to Social Responsibility, and answers to the conviction that the company is enriched through the inclusion of people with different abilities, who contribute an important added value.”
The Fundación Empresa y Sociedad awards recognise the best business practices in integrating the disadvantaged in order to promote business competitivity and social cohesion. The jury considered that the winning candidates were the best in helping and inspiring actions among other companies.
The Repsol commitment
Since 2005, Repsol has been actively working to integrate people with disabilities, making it easier for them to join the team and to receive the necessary training, as well as raising awareness among other employees. Also since 2005, Repsol has formed part of the Fundación Empresa y Sociedad trust, with which it has collaborated through the Business and Disability Programme.
The company currently has 348 disabled people among its staff, 22% of whom are in technical roles, and it provides direct employment to a further 170 people from this group, prompting the Observatorio de Empresa y Sociedad (Business and Society Observatory) to recognise Repsol as the company that has created the most direct employment over the period 2005-2007. The company has also run 18 occupational training courses in the last two years, directed at 237 disabled professionals.
Repsol is a standard bearer among Spanish companies for its continued efforts to maintain accessibility standards in its offices and service stations, and for taking a crosscutting approach to disability, with a multidisciplinary working group (employment, HR, purchasing and accessibility specialists) meaning disabled workers are included within the normal functioning of the company.
In 2008 Repsol opened the first petrol station manned wholly by a workforce of 10 disabled workers. The company has implemented Global Access in two petrol stations (in Madrid and Zaragoza) which, uniquely in Spain, have been certified as such by AENOR (standard 170001).
All these actions have been carried out thanks to different agreements signed by the company, including the 2006 Inserta Agreement with ONCE (National Organisation of the Spanish Blind), which made it possible for the integration of differently abled workers to become a reality at Repsol.
