08 Employee safety and wellbeing

At the end of June 2024 there were 3,020 employees (FTEs) working at Gasunie, 487 (19%) more than at the end of June 2023. This increase can mainly be attributed to the large number of energy transition projects we are working on.

Gasunie’s progressive sickness absence rate is 4.35% in the Netherlands and 3.20% in Germany; this was, respectively, 4.20% and 4.30% in the same period last year. Our Gasunie target is a sickness absence rate that does not exceed 4.0%.

At Gasunie, every employee attends one of the mandatory Safe@Gasunie Safety Days each year. The theme of the Safety Days held in March was ‘Every link counts’, and the central topics were the potential major hazards presented by the work done by Gasunie and recognising how controlling risks affects the entire value and supply chain. In other words, we asked our staff to consider how their work influences that of others. Taking a number of the Safe Working Principles and the concept of the Safety Buffer, we investigated how, exactly, each employee influences making Gasunie safer (together).

In January, negotiations with the unions delivered a new collective agreement for the Dutch part of Gasunie. The new collective agreement, which applies retroactively from 1 January 2024 and is effective up to 31 December 2025, includes a wage increase of 3.03% as of 1 January 2024 for staff employed with Gasunie on that date, a one-off net payment to staff of € 500 in 2024 and 2025, and five weeks of additional maternity leave, with Gasunie supplementing the leave benefit to bring it up to 90% of the salary.

In January, Gasunie was declared a World-class Workplace, the Netherlands’ largest independent quality label for good employment practices. The label is presented by Effectory, the same organisation that conducts our employee surveys. Only those who outperform the benchmarks for employee enthusiasm and good employment practices (based on their own employees’ assessment) are awarded the label. Gasunie scores above average in the following areas: an inspiring vision of the future, a social and inclusive working environment, salary, and training & development opportunities. We are always on the lookout for ways to further improve our employment practices.

In March, Gasunie started formulating its Employer Value Proposition (EVP), i.e. ‘the promise’ we make to current and future employees. Our EVP concerns what makes working at Gasunie interesting, what we stand for, and what we have to offer employees. Employees from various levels are involved in this project.