Social Commitment

The Migros Culture Percentage: unique

With annual investments of some CHF 115 million, Migros Culture Percentage is a globally unique cultural and social commitment – in 2011 it even invested CHF 117.6 million. Migros Culture Percentage, which was started by Migros founder Gottlieb Duttweiler, was specified in the charter as an independent business unit in 1957 on an equal footing as the selling of cost-effective goods and services. The FMC and the ten regional cooperatives commit themselves to making an annual contribution, which is calculated on the basis of their sales. Since its inception, Migros has invested more than CHF 3.8 billion in this unique institution.

Migros Culture Percentage is involved in five areas of activity: culture, society, education, leisure and business. The permanent institutions include the Migros Club School, the Eurocentres, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI), the L‘arc in Romainmôtier, the four Parks im Grünen, the Monte-Generoso railway and the migros museum für gegenwartskunst. In addition, Migros Culture Percentage conceives and implements numerous cultural and social projects, which reach out to broad groups of the population, supports projects from these areas and promotes young talent with competitions. The central aim is to grant people access to the current artistic forms of expression and to enable them to participate in the social, economic and cultural change in society.

Migros Culture Percentage invests nearly half of its budget in education. With the Migros Club School and the international Eurocentres language schools, it is a leading provider of adult education.

Migros Aid Fund: generous commitment

Organic chilli and cocoa cultivation in Peru, flood protection in the Bündner Oberland, solar power in Ethiopia, support for homeless children in Romania: the Migros Aid Fund has been helping people to help themselves for more than thirty years. It supports social and ecological aid projects both nationally and abroad. Each year, CHF 1 million is available for this purpose. In line with Gottlieb Duttweiler’s vision, Migros helps disadvantaged people and groups of the population, in particular children, adolescents and women.

In 2011 numerous projects were again supported by recognised aid organisations or private initiatives. They included the organisation Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Suisse, which is establishing a cooperative for milk production and sale in Mali, the foundation Vivamos Mejor, which provides young women in Colombia with sex education, the foundation Solarenergie, which is building up a solar craftsmen network in Ethiopia, but also the wild plants information centre based in Nyon.

The Migros Aid Fund was established in 1979. So far, more than CHF 32 million has been invested in aid projects. Seven delegates of the FMC verify the submissions several times a year and choose suitable projects. They must be committed to the principle of helping people to help themselves, involve the regional population and have a sustainable approach.

Kids School: sustainable development aid

One of the Migros projects for sustainable development aid is the Kids School in southern India's Tirupur, which was established in 1999 by Migros and the German foundation KIDS e.V. Under the motto of «school instead of work», today it offers more than 1400 children from low-income families a better future. The facility has several school buildings as well as a kindergarten and a healthcare centre. The young adults and teachers are picked up in the surrounding villages by bus.

Tirupur is one of the biggest textile industry cities in the south of India; Migros procures the majority of its textiles from there. The local Kids School is open exclusively to children whose parents do not earn more than CHF 75 per month. It is a bilingual school and has a very good reputation locally. To maintain its operations and to expand the education range, the school relies on support and donations. The south Indian producers of Migros textiles contribute to the financing as much as Migros suppliers and Migros industry with their donations.

In February 2011 a Migros delegation with Claude Hauser, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, visited the school and was welcomed ceremonially. As of last year, the Kids School also offers an 11th and 12th year of school and thereby enables the pupils to get their A levels – the requirement for studying at a college or a higher technical school. The new buildings required for the expansion of this schooling range were financed by Migros. The construction work is scheduled for completion in May 2012.

Employer Migros: social HR policy

The Migros Group is aware of its social responsibility as Switzerland's biggest employer. It offers its employees exemplary and progressive working conditions and spends a total of more than 70% of its entire net value added on its staff. Migros' national collective labour agreement is one of the best of its kind in Switzerland. By remaining committed to a progressive HR policy, which goes hand in hand with numerous benefits and privileges for its staff, the ideas of Gottlieb Duttweiler live on.
 
The decision of the Migros founder in 1941 to turn the Migros joint-stock company into a cooperative, which focuses on joint self-help, has proven to be the guarantor for an HR policy that is guided by a long-term and sustainable approach until this day. With an employer contribution to the Migros Pension Fund doubled to 17%, the transparently lived principle of remuneration in line with the respective role and performance, attractive training and further education offerings, a generous financial backstop for family members in the event of bereavement, the sharing of the company's profits amongst all employees as well as a broad range of family policy measures and benefits, the 50 companies of the Migros Group assume an exemplary and pacemaker function in numerous sectors and markets.