INDUSTRIAL RELATION

ISSUES
OF FRANCE

The IR parties: historical

context
Industrialisation and urbanisation occurred during the
mid-nineteenth century
Strikes were permitted in 1864 but it was still illegal to
form unions
Many informal unions were organised at the local level
at this time, and unions became legal in 1884
The prominence of anarchists and revolutionary
socialists within the French labour movement,
combined with the often paternalistic attitudes of
employers, has heavily influenced the development of
French employment relations and explains the lack of
mutual recognition between the IR parties
The state has played interventionist role

French union confederations

In 1966, the five French union confederations were
granted the status of representative unions by public
authorities on the basis of five criteria, the most
important one being independence from employers
This identity confers exclusive rights such as
the nomination of candidates in the system of employee
representation within the firm
representation on governmental and other consultative
bodies, and
collective bargaining

These rights are not dependent on actual union

presence within firms
This system remained unchanged until 2008

The employers
In contrast to plurality of union confederations, employers
have been united in their National Confederation, the Conseil
national du patronat franaise (CNPF), now the Mouvement
des enterprises de France (MEDEF)
Nevertheless there are 2 smaller employer organisations, the
Confdration gnrale des petites et moyennes enterprises
(CGPME) and the Union professionnelle artisanale (UPA)
MEDEF represents more than three quarters of all French
enterprises, however members differ in their size, interests,
diversity of capital ownership and management origins
MEDEF negotiates on broad issues with unions but wages
and work hours are excluded from these negotiations, with
rates of pay being determined at the industry level

The role of the state

State intervention is important in French employment relations,
reflecting the traditional reluctance of unions and employers to
use voluntary collective agreements. Instead, unions have
pressed for legislation when the left was in ascendancy
Since the late 1960s, there has been a close link between the
formulation of industrial law and outcomes of collective
bargaining. Industrial laws are often based on the content of
collective agreements or the outcomes of tripartite discussions
The state is also a major employer (approx. 5 million public
service employees) and as such exerts influence on private
sector pay rates
The state also legislates increases in the national minimum
wage (Salarie Minimum Interprofessional de Croissance (SMIC))

Employee representation within

enterprises
Successive French governments have established a range of
representative bodies at the enterprise level:
Workplace delegates deal with individual employee grievances
Works councils deal with workplace consultation
Union branches and stewards represent their unions and participate in
collective bargaining at the workplace

French workplace delegates are not union representatives,

however in practice a majority are elected on a union platform
In addition, workplace union delegates are appointed by the
local union branch
The representative institutions are not a coherent system but
have developed ad hoc over time and there is confusion over
roles
Unions are present in 38% per cent of private sector companies
with more than 20 employees

Works councils
Works councils are required in all firms employing at
least 50 employees and are composed of employee
representatives and employers, or employers deputies
The employer chairs meetings which are held monthly.
Each representative union can appoint a union observer
to the council
Councils have little real decision-making power except
over welfare issues
Every three months French employers are required to
inform the works councils of the state of their
companies: orders, output and finances
Employers must provide councils with a range of other
information about business activities

 Works councils must be informed and consulted

prior to the implementation of large projects
involving technological change when there might
be consequences related to employment relations
Works councils have information rights on
redundancies and are involved in the
development of social plans that emphasise
redeployment as an alternative to redundancy
Works councils are required to consider issues
such as profit-sharing arrangements and changes
to working hours, and agreement must be
reached before implementation

Developments in collective
bargaining
The hallmark of President Mitterands post-1981 reforms was the
search for a new balance between state intervention and collective
bargaining
The Employee Participation Act (1982) gave employees the right to
withdraw from dangerous working conditions, without stopping
workplace machinery, and gave priority to collective bargaining
Later the Act gave employees the right to make decisions on the
content and organisation of their work and more generally on their
working conditions
The Collective Bargaining Act (1982) contained innovations to the
French IR system, for example, in firms with established union
branches employers were obliged to annually negotiate pay and hours
Since 2001, compulsory bargaining at plant level has been extended to
equal employment rights and sickness benefits, amongst other things
However, there is no obligation to reach an agreement or bargain in
good faith and the employers decision is final

 There are three collective bargaining levels: multi-industry, industry and

enterprise/plant
Plant-level bargaining has greatly progressed since the beginning of the
1980s and has gained autonomy vis--vis the law and industry-level
bargaining
However, 84% of plant level agreements are in companies with more
than 50 employees, which excludes half of total wage earners who are
employed in small enterprises
Hence, collective bargaining at the industry level remains important
Industry-level agreements establish the basic labour relations rules for a
given industrial sector. Labour laws also impose regular bargaining on
wages and job classifications, equal opportunities and lifelong learning
Multi-industry bargaining increased in importance during the 1990s. The
aims are to achieve agreement on matters such as unemployment
benefits and pensions
Not all union confederations have supported multi-industry agreements
Three major multi-industry agreements have been ratified since 2000

Social protection institutions

In addition to the three collective bargaining arenas,
the IR system also includes national social-protection
institutions, some of which are jointly managed by the
employers associations and five representative unions
These institutions include social security funds,
supplementary pension funds, unemployment
insurance and vocational training
Since the 1980s, there have been serious problems in
all areas of the social welfare system, reflecting the
weakness and rivalry of unions as well as the social
partners inability to undertake reforms without state
intervention

Representative elections
The unions have a much higher degree of support than might
be inferred from their low membership. Support for individual
unions can be measured by both their formal membership
and from the results of social elections, such as those for the
representatives of works councils and industrial tribunals
Works councils election results for 2005-06 showed that in
total the five representative unions obtained nearly 69.2% of
the votes and the participation rate for works councils
elections remains at more than 60%
The industrial tribunal elections represent another indicator of
union support. The are composed of councillors from the firms
and are responsible for resolving individual grievances
between employees and employers. The councillors are
elected by all employees and employers.

Industrial disputes
The right to strike is guaranteed by the French Constitution,
with qualifications
Since 1963, public sector unions have been required to give 5
days notice before a strike. There is little regulation of strikes
in the private sector
Legal striking is defined as a stoppage of work; sabotage,
working to rule or slowing production are unlawful
Strikes must pertain to industrial issues; lock-outs are
generally illegal
Constraints have been placed on public sector strike activity in
recent years which have been fiercely debated among unions
There are elaborate procedures for the settlement of disputes
including conciliation, mediation and arbitration, despite little
legislation governing strikes

Trends in industrial disputes

Industrial disputes tend to be short-lived, as French unions have few
financial reserves and generally do not grant strike pay
France loses relatively few work days due to stoppages when
compared with Italy and many English-speaking countries
Compared to the 1970s, there has been a significant decline in the
number of working days lost to strikes in the 1980s and 1990s (for
both private and publicly owned companies)
It is difficult to accurately attribute causes of strikes, as many
disputes involve multiple issues. In 1998, a quarter of strikes were
apparently about working time issues, whereas wages and
employment matters apparently precipitated only half total strikes.
By the mid 2000s, wages claims were the major cause of strikes
Whilst there has been a decline in traditional strikes, new forms of
conflicts have emerged such as work-to-rule and go-slow practices,
demonstrations and petitions, and, while not well recorded, they
have become significant features of recent industrial disputes

CONCLUSION
There is continuing low union membership but there have been slight
gains in recent years
Various factors have worked against unions, including industry
restructuring, expansion of the service sector, high unemployment, and
the growth of flexible labour contracts. In addition, fragmentation of the
union movement hampers its strength
The influence of unions varies: unions are active and influential in large
companies but rarely present in small and medium enterprises where
they are largely opposed by employers. They are also more influential in
the public sector
Unions nonetheless are politically powerful exerting pressure through
strikes particularly in the public sector as well as protests and
political opposition
The state maintains its prominent role in employment relations, most
recently illustrated by the 2008 Act on social democracy and working
time which maintains the 35 hour legal working week whilst allowing for
some enterprise level negotiation of this provision