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Collective Bargaining in Labour Law Regimes

Part of the book series: Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law ((GSCL,volume 32))

Abstract

Despite a long history leading to a strong system of collective bargaining and social dialogue as a major source of a protective labour law in France, recent changes have tended to destabilise the foundations and actors involved in collective bargaining in a negative way. The influence of globalisation and recent liberal reforms have attempted to decentralise collective bargaining in order to increase flexible employment rules. These latest changes have attacked and weakened certain fundamental rules of French labour law, such as the principle of favour which implies that the rule which provides the greatest protection to the worker takes precedence in cases where several different rules are relevant. On the workplace level, derogatory flexible agreements are now encouraged and the traditional union monopoly on bargaining may be bypassed with increasing frequency. The accumulation of these changes demonstrates that collective bargaining, if not the entire labour law system, stands at a crossroads in France and in many other countries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Waline (1951) (in French).

  2. 2.

    13 November 1982.

  3. 3.

    For a short history of trade unions in France written collectively by the five main trade unions, see http://cgt.fr/IMG/pdf/20150618_cescongressyndicatsfrancais_feta__brochure_hd.pdf (in French).

  4. 4.

    Mazeaud (2012) (in French).

  5. 5.

    Ibid. pp. 188–189.

  6. 6.

    Peskine and Wolmark (2016) (in French).

  7. 7.

    According to the results of union elections and the special vote, and if the result is higher than 8%, Art. L.2122-9 of the French Labour Code.

  8. 8.

    Article 29 of Law of 5 March 2014, regarding with vocational training, employment and social democracy (Law No. 2014-288).

  9. 9.

    Caillaud (2014), p. 217 (in French).

  10. 10.

    Art. L.2152-3 French Labour Code.

  11. 11.

    The Constitutional Council is the French Supreme Court which decides whether laws are valid and in accordance with the Constitution of 1958.

  12. 12.

    https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJuriConst.do?oldAction=rechJuriConst&idTexte=CONSTEXT000017666562&fastReqId=1820716408&fastPos=1, link to the decision (in French). See e.g. https://international.vlex.com/vid/case-demir-and-baykara-v-turkey-51456848.

  13. 13.

    ECHR 12 Nov. 2008, Demir and Bayraka vs. Turkey, No. 34503/97. http://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?language=en&num=C-271/08.

  14. 14.

    Article 55 of the 1958 Constitution.

  15. 15.

    EUCJ 15 July 2010, Commission vs. Germany, case C-271/08.

  16. 16.

    Art. L.2221-1 of the French Labour Code.

  17. 17.

    Art. L.2232-21 to L.2232-23 of the French Labour Code.

  18. 18.

    Art. L.2232-24 to L.2232-27 of the French Labour Code.

  19. 19.

    Art. L.2143-23 and L.2232-14 of the French Labour Code.

  20. 20.

    For more details, see http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/francais/nouveaux-cahiers-du-conseil/cahier-n-45/la-place-de-la-negociation-collective-en-droit-constitutionnel.142402.html (in French).

  21. 21.

    Art. L.2241-1 of the French Labour Code.

  22. 22.

    Art. L.2241-8 to 12 of the French Labour Code.

  23. 23.

    Art. L.2242-5 to 7 of the French Labour Code.

  24. 24.

    Art. L.2242-8 to 12 of the French Labour Code.

  25. 25.

    Art. L.2242-13 of the French Labour Code.

  26. 26.

    Art. L.1243-8 of the French Labour Code.

  27. 27.

    Art. L.1243-9 of the French Labour Code.

  28. 28.

    Art. L.3111-3 of the French Labour Code.

  29. 29.

    Art. L.2232-12 of the French Labour Code.

  30. 30.

    Art. L.2232-12§2 of the French Labour Code.

  31. 31.

    Art. D.2231-3 of the French Labour Code.

  32. 32.

    Art. L.2231-3 and L.2231-4 of the French Labour Code.

  33. 33.

    Art. D.2231-3 of the French Labour Code.

  34. 34.

    Art. 1103 of the French Civil Code.

  35. 35.

    Art. L.2251-1 of the French Labour Code.

  36. 36.

    Link to the decision of the Court of Cassation: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJuriJudi.do?oldAction=rechJuriJudi&idTexte=JURITEXT000017828398&fastReqId=1185379045&fastPos=1 (in French).

  37. 37.

    Art. L.2262-11 of the French Labour Code.

  38. 38.

    The offence of obstruction, for which employers risk one year imprisonment and a €3750 fine.

  39. 39.

    Art. L.2243-1 and L.2243-2 of the French Labour Code.

  40. 40.

    Link to the decision of the “Council of State” (the highest court in the public sector): https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJuriAdmin.do?oldAction=rechJuriAdmin&idTexte=CETATEXT000007707847&fastReqId=101715347&fastPos=1 (in French).

  41. 41.

    This is the distinction between the imperative effect of collective agreements or legislation and the obligatory effect of private contracts.

  42. 42.

    In “standard” agreement interpretation, if there is a doubt as to a provision’s meaning or scope, the provision must be interpreted in favour of the engaged party, who, in collective agreements, is generally the employer.

  43. 43.

    Except for the matters where the collective agreements can deviate “in peius” from the legislation.

  44. 44.

    Art. L.2262-5 of the French Labour Code.

  45. 45.

    In the event of a lack of negotiators or inactivity for at least 5 years.

  46. 46.

    Art. L.3322-2 of the French Labour Code.

  47. 47.

    Art. L.3323-6 of the French Labour Code.

  48. 48.

    Art. L.3323-9 of the French Labour Code.

  49. 49.

    DARES (2015), “La négociation collective en 2015”, p. 16 (in French).

  50. 50.

    Art. L.2252-1 LC.

  51. 51.

    Art. L.2253-5, L.2253-6 and L.2253-7 of the French Labour Code.

  52. 52.

    Law No. 2015-990 of 6 August 2015 on Economic Growth, Activity and Equal Opportunities.

  53. 53.

    http://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/bilan_negoc_collective_2015.pdf, pp. 191–192 (in French).

  54. 54.

    The polls showed that the population mostly thought social dialogue irrelevant, which probably led to the decision to abolish these conferences.

  55. 55.

    http://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/bilan_negoc_collective_2015.pdf, pp. 204–205 (in French).

  56. 56.

    “La nouvelle convention sur l’assurance chômage du 14 avril 2017. La dernière de l’ère du paritarisme?”, Joly (2017), p. 327 (in French).

  57. 57.

    For more details on the spirit and the process of the economic governance, see Seifert (2014), pp. 311–330 and Mazuyer (2017b), pp. 91–102.

  58. 58.

    To reward France for its latest social reforms, the European Council decided in May 2018, that, in accordance with Article 126(12) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, that the procedure of excessive deficit is to be abrogated when the excessive deficit in the Member State concerned has been corrected. In the view of the Council, the excessive deficit in France had been corrected and Decision 2009/414/EC had to be abrogated. See https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/com_2018_433_en.pdf.

  59. 59.

    https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites/default/files/ef_publication/field_ef_document/ef1570en.pdf.

  60. 60.

    “The 2016 law on labour, modernising social dialogue and securing professional pathways aims to improve firms’ capacity to adjust to economic cycles and reduce the share of workers on temporary contracts (…)In this context, it is important to finalise the implementation of the ongoing ambitious reform programme, which includes the recently adopted reform of the labour law, the planned overhaul of the unemployment benefit system and the reform of the vocational education and training system, including apprenticeships.” Recommendation for a Council Recommendation on the 2018 National Reform Programme of France and delivering a Council opinion on the 2018 Stability Programme of France, Brussels, 23.5.2018 COM(2018) 409 final.

  61. 61.

    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32016H0818(27)&from=EN, link to the Commission’s document containing the Commission’s recommendations for France.

  62. 62.

    Only 10 of such agreements were concluded.

  63. 63.

    Art. L.2254-2§4 of the French Labour Code.

  64. 64.

    Art. L.2254-2 of the French Labour Code.

  65. 65.

    On the causes and implications of regulatory competition in the European Union, see Carpano et al. (2016), p. 380 (in French).

  66. 66.

    Order No. 2011-1328 10/20/2011, portant transposition de la directive 2009/38/CE du Parlement européen et du Conseil, 06/05/2009 concernant l’institution d’un comité d’entreprise européen ou d’une procédure dans les entreprises de dimension communautaire et les groupes d’entreprises de dimension communautaire en vue d’informer et de consulter les travailleurs, JORF, 2011-10-21; Decree No. 2011-1414 of 31 October 2011 relatif à la composition du groupe spécial de négociation et du comité d’entreprise européen, JORF; 2011-11-01 (in French).

  67. 67.

    For more details and a complete and recent database of EWCs see: http://www.ewcdb.eu/sites/default/files/EWC%20database%20data%20quality%20guide%20De%20Spiegelaere.pdf.

  68. 68.

    88 of the 282 agreements concluded between 1995 and 2015 in the world are French. see http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=978&langId=fr&company=&hdCountryId=5&companySize=0&sectorId=0&year=0&esp=0&geoScope=0&refStandard=&keyword=&mode=advancedSearchSubmit.

  69. 69.

    European Works Councils bulletin, 1997a.

  70. 70.

    TGI Nanterre, ordonnance de référé, 04/04 1997 and Cour d’Appel de Versailles, 07/05/1997.

  71. 71.

    For more details, see http://www.worker-participation.eu/About-WP/Publications/Information-and-consultation-in-the-European-Community-ETUI-REHS-report-97.

  72. 72.

    https://www.worker-participation.eu/EU-Framework-for-I-C-P/Information-and-Consultation/Renault-Vilvoorde-Case.

  73. 73.

    The grounds were that the EWC agreement did not grant its secretary a permanent mandate to take legal action on its behalf, European Works Councils bulletin, 2003a.

  74. 74.

    EIRO, Hall and Marginson (2004).

  75. 75.

    Art. 155§3 and 153§2 TFEU.

  76. 76.

    For more details on the implementation of these framework agreements in national legal orders see this recent survey https://resourcecentre.etuc.org/ReportFile-20170130170457_Implementation-framework-agreements-overview-december-2016.pdf.

  77. 77.

    Teyssié (2010), p. 65 (in French).

  78. 78.

    http://www.europarl.europa.eu/registre/docs_autres_institutions/commission_europeenne/sec/2011/0241/COM_SEC%282011%290241_EN.pdf.

  79. 79.

    http://www.etuc.org/sites/www.etuc.org/files/BROCHURE_harassment7_2_.pdf.

  80. 80.

    See the Study on the implementation of the autonomous framework agreement on harassment and violence at work, European Commission (2016), p. 25.

  81. 81.

    http://travailemploi.revues.org/1609; link to Léonard and Sobczak (2010).

  82. 82.

    As is the case in EADS, PSA Peugeot Citroën, Renault and Suez, see Frapard (2018) (in French).

  83. 83.

    Axa, Danone and Total.

  84. 84.

    https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/25214604/european-works-councils-in-practice-key-research-findings/13.

  85. 85.

    http://www.industriall-union.org/sites/default/files/uploads/documents/GFAs/PSAPeugeotCitroen/avenant_acm_5_mai_2010_en.pdf.

  86. 86.

    See Mazuyer (2010) and Mazuyer (2017a), pp. 263–281 (in French).

  87. 87.

    Eurofound (2008).

  88. 88.

    Bercusson (1992), p. 185.

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  1. CNRS, CERCRID (Centre de recherches critiques sur le droit) UMR 5137, University of Lyon, Lyon, France

    Emmanuelle Mazuyer

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  1. Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Ulla Liukkunen

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Mazuyer, E. (2019). France. In: Liukkunen, U. (eds) Collective Bargaining in Labour Law Regimes. Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, vol 32. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16977-0_9

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