Madrileña Red de Gas is fully aware that our employees are the driving force behind our success and give value to the company, and that they allow us to meet our objectives.

This is why at Madrileña Red de Gas we guarantee decent, quality work for our employees, offering them the opportunity to have a productive job with a decent income, offering them security in the workplace and social protection for their families, as well as better prospects for personal development and social integration.

In addition, thanks to the work, effort and commitment of each of our employees, we have an unbeatable team.

10.1 Our human capital

The evolution of the main magnitudes listed above over the last few years is shown below :

As can be seen from the graph, our workforce has followed a stable line in recent years, reaching 123 employees at year-end 2023 (without considering the two partial retirees at that date).

10.2 Labour relations

Madrileña Red de Gas promotes the hiring of our professionals through stable contracts, which is why 97.6% of the Madrileña Red de Gas workforce is employed on a permanent contract. Furthermore, in terms of working hours, 96.7% of the workforce has a full-time contract, 0.8% has a part-time contract and 2.4% has requested a reduced working day. The latter two groups mainly comprise women.

The proportion of senior executives in our significant operating locations is 0.8% of all full-time employees, namely our Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the only senior executive of our company, who is permanently based in the Madrid region.

A respect for labour rights is fundamental to our commitment to our employees, therefore we encourage negotiations as an important means of improving their working conditions and labour relations, as well as full freedom of association.

In this respect, the working conditions and terms of employment of 28.4% of our workforce (excluding partial retirees) are regulated by a collective bargaining agreement. The remaining 71.6% is governed by the Workers’ Statute, and is also governed by special conditions negotiated with the worker when they join the company.

In the event of any significant operational change, the communication of this process to our employees and their representatives is usually made at least two weeks in advance, and in any case, in compliance with any legal requirements. If this change is a result of collective bargaining, these changes are specified in the collective bargaining agreement, including the established notice periods.

Workers who are not employees

As mentioned in Section 7 Supply Chain, a large part of our company’s activity is carried out by our suppliers. As such, all employees who carry out relevant work for Madrileña Red de Gas are registered in the tool we use to coordinate business activities (CAE), where we control compliance with the requirements necessary to carry out such work. At the end of 2023, there were 748 workers registered in this tool.

Other types of workers who are not employees and whose work is controlled by Madrileña Red de Ga include temporary workers from employment agencies and the interns who carry out practical training in our company. In this respect, in 2023 we employed six interns and four people from Temporary Employment Agencies (ETTs).

10.3 Work climate and well-being

Work Environment Survey

During 2023 we conducted a new Work Climate Survey to gather information on well-being and work engagement in our company. Unlike the surveys carried out internally in the past, this time it was carried out by an external company, thus giving the process an expert and independent technical view.

Participation was record-breaking, reaching 80% in 2023, thus ensuring that the results of the analysis are more robust. The overall satisfaction level was 83%, the highest level ever achieved, along with that for 2022.

When asked “To what degree would you recommend your company as a place to work?” (Employee Net Promoter Score, eNPS), a metric commonly used to measure the degree of commitment and loyalty of employees to their company, Madrileña Red De Gas obtained an almost excellent score of 42.9.

By requesting more detailed information, it has been possible to detect strengths and areas for improvement, to obtain information about the reality and needs of our company, as well as to understand the experience of our employees by demographic groups (by area, gender, or by age or seniority group).

The balance between personal and professional life, the working environment and the quality of the staff are the three aspects most valued by our employees.

Team-building

In 2023, we wanted to further strengthen interdepartmental relations by offering all staff two different team days throughout the year. Activities were carried out in groups comprising employees from different areas. The activities were aimed at encouraging teamwork and demonstrating that the tasks of each of the teams add up to more than they do separately.

This message, together with the special event offered at Christmas, was highly valued by our staff, as reflected in the open questions of the working climate survey mentioned above.

Welfare measures

Madrileña Red de Gas continues to offer initiatives to promote the well-being of our employees at work, with the aim of achieving a healthy working environment in which employees feel satisfied and have a good quality of life.

With regard to savings and retirement plans, Madrileña Red de Gas makes contributions to these plans for all our employees, which range between €40,000 and €78,000 from the organisation’s general resources, and there is no specific fund for this purpose. These contributions depend both on the employee’s salary and their negotiations with the entity, ranging from 1.5% to 9% of the salary.

10.4 Reconciliation of personal and professional life

Madrileña Red de Gas is committed to promoting measures to promote rest time at the end of the working day, recognising the right to digital disconnection as a fundamental element to achieve a better organisation of working time in order to respect private and family life, improve the reconciliation of personal, family and working life, and contribute to optimising the occupational health of our employees.

In this regard, in 2023, following negotiations with our social partners, our Policy on Digital Disconnection was agreed and implemented. This policy establishes the necessary measures to ensure that all our employees can exercise their right to digital disconnection, as a guarantee of respect for their rest time, as well as their personal and family privacy.

Furthermore, Madrileña Red de Gas continues to be committed to remote working as one of the main measures for a good work-life balance and talent retention, which, as we have been able to verify through the working climate survey, is what our employees value most. However, in order to maintain interdepartmental communication and relations, we encourage a hybrid working model, taking advantage of both options.

With regard to leave requested for childcare, in 2023 six of our employees took parental leave, four of them men. Indeed, since these data were first collected, the number of paternity leaves has exceeded the number of maternity leaves every year.

All employees who have taken some form of leave have returned to work under the same conditions at the end of the leave period, with return to work and retention rates of 100% in recent years.

10.5 Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are values that Madrileña Red de Gas fully supports to allow us to advance as an inclusive company, attract the best talent and adapt to change, among many other benefits.

To ensure compliance with these values in our company, we work towards continuous improvement in equality, diversity and work-life balance through our Equality Plan 2022–2026, which sets out the following objectives:

The 2023 financial year was the year in which the supervision of our Equality Plan 2022–2026 was consolidated by implementation of the Equality Plan Monitoring Committee, which is applying the 35 action measures that were agreed with our social partners, including:

• Measures to promote communication, such as publication of vacancies, awareness-raising campaigns, reminders of rights and permissions
• Others that promote transparency with our social partners, such as information on promotion ratios, selection, training, leave, etc.
• Elaboration of a Guide on Gender Violence, as well as a Guide on Inclusive Language. On this last point, we have adapted the name of each job by using inclusive language.
• Measures that promote gender equality through internal promotions, selection and training, offering equal opportunities.

In addition, in order to promote actions to raise awareness of the importance of maintaining a working environment that respects the freedom and dignity of people and to promote values of equality between women and men among our employees, during 2023 the Protocol for the Prevention of Harassment at Work, Sexual Harassment and Sex-Based Harassment was approved, and training in this regard was provided to the entire workforce.

It is also worth mentioning that in 2023, as in previous years, there have been no cases of discrimination in our company.

Diversity in governing bodies and employees

Aware of the need to continue working on equality, and given the historical masculinisation of the sector in which we operate, our efforts in the evolution of our workforce, in internal promotions and in our firm commitment to talent management as a key to success are evident.

With regard to Diversity and Inclusion, at Madrileña Red de Gas we have continued our commitment to the incorporation of under-represented groups. Thus, in recent years, we have included over 50 such people in our workforce, with one of these joining the company in 2023.

With regard to nationality, 3.25% of the workforce comes from another country. By categories, 9.1% of management comes from another country, with this percentage being 2% for the non-Spanish staff in all other categories combined.

Remuneration

As mentioned in Chapter 3 Good Governance, Ethics and Transparency, the remuneration policies of all our employees are in line with good corporate governance practices, in accordance with the provisions of Article 7 of Royal Decree 902/2020, and we carried out a remuneration audit in accordance with the Equality Plan (2022–2026). Consequently, a corresponding action plan has been established in the “Remuneration” block, which is monitored during follow-up of the Plan.

In addition to the above, it should be noted that in our salary policies, special focus is placed on competency-based and objective-based remuneration, as well as on years of experience and job category.

To analyse pay equity between men and women, the ratio of women’s pay to men’s pay is calculated, taking into account both the fixed salary and the company cost, without considering additional remuneration (overtime, mileage and allowances), and the average for women versus men for each job category is compared.

For those employees who have reduced working hours or are partially retired, their full-time equivalent has been calculated.

In 2023, the annual total compensation ratio for the highest paid person was 5.2 times the median for all other employees. The ratio of the percentage increase in total annual compensation for the highest paid person to the median of all other employees was 1.0. The company cost of each employee was taken into account for this calculation, and the full-time equivalent was calculated for employees with reduced working hours or partially retired.

No employee is paid on the basis of minimum wage rules.

10.6 Talent management

Attracting talent

The process for selecting and incorporating new profiles demanded by our activity, which is constantly adapting to market changes, is a constant challenge for the company. Consequently, at Madrileña Red de Gas we have opted for multi-skilled, agile and flexible profiles in line with the demands of the sector.

This transformation is evident in the profile of our employees, which has become more efficient, versatile and with an ability to learn and an interest in facing new challenges and responsibilities.

The FY2023 recruitment rate was 4.9% (four women and two men). Of these six new recruits, three came from our scholarships.

During the reporting period there was no staff turnover. Turnover rate is a measure of good selection and promotion policies. The fact that we had a voluntary turnover ratio and unwanted turnover ratio of 0% in the financial year 2023 underlines the high level of employee satisfaction.

In addition, in recent years, between 60% and 80% of new recruits have been university graduates.

Furthermore, as we are fully aware of the importance of incorporating new talent into our company, Madrileña Red de Gas has been promoting internships for young people with different profiles for many years by way of agreements with different universities in the Community of Madrid.

Thus, since the beginning of our activity, we have incorporated a total of 54 interns, 22% of whom have subsequently joined the company. In 2023, six young people started their internships with us, and three of them were hired.

Talent development

In today’s changing and complex world, it is becoming increasingly important to strengthen and develop all the skills and competences that allow us to tackle the challenges that we face on a regular basis as effectively as possible. At Madrileña Red de Gas we consider it to be vitally important to articulate various initiatives and create work spaces with which to guarantee the growth of all our professionals.

As such, during 2023, we launched a new development project called “I want to get to know you better”, focused on participating in a process of self-knowledge that has provided us with information on the strengths and opportunities for improvement of the participants’ professional profile and, therefore, to articulate various initiatives and actions with which to continue growing within their individual development plan.

In addition to talent management via training, which we will see below, at Madrileña Red de Gas we are also committed to the professional development of our staff. As a result, 13 of the 22 people in the management category (Heads of Department and Directors) have been promoted internally in recent years.

Finally, and as a milestone in our intellectual-capital database, or “Knowledge Stock”, we have published the “MOOGLE” tool, created in Power BI, which includes the knowledge of our employees and allows us to give it value. In addition, we can identify people with specific knowledge, which is one of the main objectives of this tool. Additionally, the Knowledge Stock database has allowed us to link the descriptions of each job with its training needs.

Training

To face the constant need to adapt to market changes, at Madrileña Red de Gas we use talent management as a key element through the application of our annual Training Plan. Implementation of this Plan allows us to respond to all the training needs that arise as a result of the evolution of our company and the growth of our professionals.

During this exercise, the initiatives and reflections presented at the previous year’s round table “Road to the future” were consolidated. This has highlighted our company’s firm commitment to training in Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, a training action that has required 2400 hours.

In addition, the “Evoluciona” initiative, which strengthens the relationship between departments, has been carried out on two occasions during 2023 by the Expansion and Network Operations Directorate.

During 2023, we delivered 6997.45 hours of training, or an average of 56.89 hours of training per employee. Of the total number of hours taught in 2023, 2916.53 hours were received by women and 4080.92 by men.

The increase in total and average training hours with respect to previous years is due to the fact that, as mentioned above, in 2023 we have opted for Hydrogen training, which has involved 150 hours of training activity by 16 people.

With regard to other specialities, we would like to highlight Equality training, mainly that related to the Protocol for the prevention of sexual harassment and harassment for reasons of sex; training actions in Cybersecurity (maintaining the attractive format of the capsules) or training in Prevention of Occupational Risks and Languages, which continue to be of major importance in our company.

In total, during 2023, we carried out 52 training actions.

With regard to regular performance and career-development appraisals, all our employees receive a personalised performance appraisal by way of personal interviews with their managers at least once a year. This supports the personal development of each employee while contributing to competence management and the development of human capital within our company.

In addition to the above, in the case of new hires, the Human Resources department carries out personalised monitoring, both with the new recruit and with their direct manager, during the first year, analysing aspects such as their adaptation, learning ability, relationship with colleagues, etc. After the probationary period of the newly hired person, which varies from 2 to 6 months depending on the profile, their direct manager evaluates whether the candidate has passed the probationary period.

10.7 Occupational Health and Safety

Madrileña Red de Gas is aware of the importance of providing our employees with a safe working environment, anticipating the occurrence of events that may cause damage or injury to their health.

In order to comply with the above principles, Madrileña Red de Gas has an Occupational Health and Safety Management System, implemented and certified under the UNE-EN ISO 45001:2018 standard, with a scope that encompasses our entire workforce, work centres, contractors and subcontractors and activities of our organisation.

Furthermore, in order to guarantee compliance with the preventive obligations required by Law 31/1995 on Occupational Risk Prevention, and in accordance with Royal Decree 39/1997, which approves the Prevention Services Regulations, Madrileña Red de Gas relies on the services of an External Prevention Service as an organisational method for the prevention of occupational risks.

Consequently, through our Industrial Safety and Occupational Risk Prevention Policy, we are committed to the following principles, amongst others:

Consultation and participation

Madrileña Red de Gas guarantees the consultation and participation of our workers in preventive matters as part of their right to effective protection in terms of Health and Safety at Work.

In addition, our employees are the main source of information on aspects that can be improved in terms of occupational risk prevention. Therefore, in addition to being a right, consultation and participation helps to improve Health and Safety conditions at work, thereby favouring the involvement of all personnel and, therefore, the integration of health and safety throughout the organisation.

Thus, we provide timely access to clear, understandable and relevant Occupational Health and Safety information through the internal collaborative documented information environments and, where appropriate, through regular written submissions or reports prepared for this purpose.

We also guarantee adequate consultation and participation of our workers through workers’ representatives or prevention delegates. In addition, our Health and Safety Committee is the joint and collegiate body for participation in occupational risk prevention. The operating rules and functions of the Prevention Delegates and the Health and Safety Committee are established internally.

Three meetings of the Health and Safety Committee, at which the most relevant issues related to occupational risk prevention, such as the occupational accident rate, the Health and Safety Management System certification audit and training in prevention, were monitored were held during 2023.

Hazard identification and risk assessment

Madrileña Red de Gas considers the identification of hazards and the evaluation of occupational risks to be essential instruments for guaranteeing the correct and efficient management and application of our Risk-Prevention Plan.

Our Risk-Prevention Plan involves the implementation of a culture of prevention at all levels of the company, aimed at assessing and minimising the risks to the health of our workers that their work activity may cause

In this hazard-identification and risk-assessment process, we consider the nature of the activity in general, the characteristics of the jobs existing in our company and of the workers who may perform them, taking into account the existing or foreseen working conditions.

This identification and assessment are updated when working conditions change and, in any case, is reviewed whenever necessary in the event of any harm to health. In this regard, during 2023, our External Prevention Service conducted interviews with our staff and visited our work centres (the head offices in Pozuelo and the warehouse in Alcorcón) in order to collect data and update both the occupational risk assessments and the emergency plans for both centres.

Main Industrial Safety and Health and Safety actions

During 2023 we have carried out numerous actions related to the management of both Industrial Safety and Occupational Health and Safety in our company.

Coordination of business activities

At the end of 2023, the following occupational accident figures had been recorded for both our staff and the staff of contractors who carried out activities for us in that period.

Every accident is a lesson for us, and we must obtain the best and most amount of information possible from its investigation

Since the beginning of our company’s activity, there have been no accidents with major consequences or fatalities, and no occupational diseases derived from performance of the work been detected in either our personnel or in the personnel of contractor companies that have carried out work activities for us.

With regard to the most common causes of occupational accidents in our company, although in previous years these were related to overexertion, in 2023 three of the four occupational accidents recorded were related to traffic vehicles.

With regard to incidents, most of which are recorded by our contracting companies, these are usually due to tripping, poor ergonomic habits, minor cuts, blows with objects, or even aggression by third parties.

Every accident is a lesson for us, and we must obtain the best and most amount of information possible from its investigation

Madrileña Red de Gas investigates all accidents, even those that have not caused injuries to workers (incidents), in order to eliminate the causes that triggered the event and thus avoid its repetition, taking advantage of the experience to improve the health and safety conditions of our company.

We also report accidents to the labour authorities, in accordance with current legislation, and we provide statistical information on our accident rate to the Sector association (SEDIGAS).

Coordination of business activities

As mentioned above, Madrileña Red de Gas has a large number of contractors and subcontractors who carry out a large part of our activities, some of which are very important for our business.

That is why we have specific control measures in place, through which we demand and monitor the compliance of all workers with the work procedures and safety measures of our organisation, guaranteeing their health and safety at all times.

In addition to the activities in which we carry out this Coordination of Activities every year, during 2023 we carried out actions in the central buildings that have required Coordination of Business Activities; for example, in the project carried out to install and commission the hydrogen boiler in the warehouse.

IT tool for the control of contracts and subcontracts documentation

Madrileña Red de Gas has an IT tool for control of contract and subcontract documentation for different activities and work centres.

At the end of the year, the platform had 748 contractor/subcontractor workers registered and 8636 documents required, with a high level of compliance. It should be noted that the documents required by the tool include both those in the field of occupational risk prevention, such as requirements included in contracts, or other issues, such as occupational employee training.

The heads of the contractors in the operational units have access codes to the IT tool, which allows them to consult it and request the documentation missing from the application. In addition, our Risk Management Unit also carries out controls of the documentation provided in the tool, requesting those that are found to be missing from the contractors. Likewise, the Purchasing Department issues subcontracting authorisations for those subcontractors that have previously been checked for compliance at a documentary level by the Health and Safety Coordinators, thus establishing a filter prior to work on site.

These documentary checks are supplemented by direct field supervision, whereby the effective implementation of a large number of preventive measures, as well as the correctness of the documentation provided, is checked.

Operational control visit registration software tool

Madrileña Red de Gas has made an IT tool for recording operational control visits available to the personnel who carry out such visits.

This IT tool centralises all the information in one place, making it easier for our staff to search for information.

During this period, a total of 111 operational monitoring visits have been carried out.

We also have several engineering companies acting as Health and Safety Coordinators (hereinafter, HSCs) in various activities, which, for the time being, have not been included in the IT tool. These HSCs report their activity via monthly reports. In addition, the HSCs that respond to emergency notifications also issue a report of the notification made. Specifically, in 2023, there were 50 emergency calls to which the HSCs responded.

Health surveillance and promotion

With regard to the health monitoring of our employees, at Madrileña Red de Gas we carry out a systematic evaluation of their health status every year, based on the risks inherent to their job and identified in their risk assessment. This process is carried out by health personnel with technical competence, training and accredited capacity from our External Prevention Service.

Thus, during 2023, a total of 96 (periodic and initial) medical examinations were carried out, with the results being totally confidential and restricted to the employees themselves.
Our company also offers our employees a range of voluntary health promotion services and programmes that address significant non-work related health risks.

These initiatives include the Medical Insurance offered to our employees, as we saw in Chapter 10.3 Work climate and well-being, the implementation of flu vaccination campaigns (in which 11 of our employees were interested), as well as the Early Colorectal Cancer Detection Programme, aimed at our staff from the age of 50 onwards.

Health and Safety Training and Information

During 2023, we have continued with our commitment to the training of our employees on Industrial Safety and Occupational Health and Safety, covering the different groups of the company. In this regard, we have a specific Training Plan in both areas.

This plan is drawn up on the basis of a detailed analysis of the training activities we have established for each job position, as well as the training our employees have already received in previous years, thus establishing the necessary or recommended actions to be carried out during the year.

This analysis is a strategy that we consider fundamental for correct detection of the training needs of the different collectives that make up our company. This ensures planning, which is essential in order to optimise the courses.

We have also diversified the types of training to include face-to-face courses (with or without internships), courses via computer platforms (online courses), or courses through video meetings. The latter two facilitate training for a larger number of employees, which has brought us considerable advantages, such as the reconciliation of family life or even the reduction of emissions by avoiding travel.

The courses carried out during 2023 were as follows:

• Riesgos y Medidas Preventivas en Oficinas
• Teletrabajo
• Plan de Emergencias. Criterios de Actuación
• Personal Designado
• Prevención de Riesgos para Trabajos en Campo
• Planes de Emergencias de las plantas GLP
• Seguridad en Acceso y Trabajos en Recintos Confinados
• Manejo de carretillas elevadoras
• Seguridad Vial en el Entorno Laboral
• Curso de Violencia de Terceros
• Primeros Auxilios

With regard to information actions, during 2023 we have collaborated with our private insurance fund, distributing various triptychs on different topics related to Occupational Health and Safety prepared by them. These included leaflets related to occupational hazards in pregnancy, road safety recommendations, as well as working at high temperatures.

In addition, we have drawn up the following internal action protocols, which facilitate the monitoring of compliance:

• Internal action protocol on Maternity protection, which is an adaptation of “the Guidelines for risk assessment and maternity protection at work”, produced by the National Institute for Safety and Health at Work (INSHT).
• Protocol for Outdoor work with an orange or red weather warning for high temperatures, which reflects the new Royal Decree-Law 4/2023, on the prevention of occupational hazards during episodes of high temperatures, among other aspects.