Actors and institutions in France

About employer representation

Membership of employer organisations is voluntary in France, with organisations competing to attract members. Most of the country’s employers are members of at least one employer organisation. In contrast with trade unions, employer organisation density was quite high (Traxler, 2004). According to a study published by Dares (2019), on average one in four companies in France was a member of an employer organisation in 2017, and two out of three employees worked in these companies. Employee coverage rates are high in sectors where employment is highly concentrated around a few large companies (chemical and pharmaceutical industries, glass, construction, public works and banking). This indicates that previous estimates, which included the total membership figures of all confederations, strongly overestimated the representativeness of employer organisations in France. The reason for this is that many companies are members of several organisations.

Employer organisation membership and density, 2011–2019 (%)

Notes: * Percentage of employees working in an establishment that is a member of any employer organisation that is involved in collective bargaining. n.a., not available.

Main employer organisations and confederations

The Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des Entreprises de France, MEDEF) was established in 1998 to succeed the former National Council of French Employers (Conseil national du patronat français, CNPF). MEDEF is a multilayered confederation of sectoral and territorial organisations bringing together companies with more than 10 employees. It organises 76 federations that cover some 600 associations whose members are companies working in the same sector, 13 regional organisations and over 100 departmental or local organisations. MEDEF seeks to cover all companies, whatever their size, in all geographical and professional sectors. Its members covered about 66% of the total workforce in the private sector in 2021.

On 6 January 2017, the General Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (Confédération Générale des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises, CGPME) changed its name to the Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Confédération des petites et moyennes entreprises, CPME). The confederation is organised into four national sections: commerce, services, industry and crafts. It organises 117 territorial unions and about 200 federations or associations of trades. Its members covered about 28% of the total workforce in the private sector in 2021.

On 17 November 2016, the Craftwork Employers’ Association (Union professionnelle artisanale, UPA) merged with the National Union of Liberal Professions (Union nationale des professions liberales, UNAPL) to create a new body, the Union of Local Businesses (Union des entreprises de proximité, U2P). The union organises 119 federations or associations of trades and 110 regional or local organisations. Its members covered about 31% of the total workforce in the private sector in 2021.

There is also an employer organisation representing the non-profit sector, the Union of Employers of the Social Economy (Union des employeurs de l’économie sociale et solidaire, UDES), formerly the Union of Unions and Representative Employer Groups in the Social Economy (Union de syndicat et groupements d’employeurs représentatifs dans l’économie sociale). The organisation represents 80% of the sector’s employers.

Main employer organisations and confederations

The reform of employer organisations’ representativeness was adopted as part of a reform of vocational training that took place in March 2014 (through Law No. 2014-288 of 5 March 2014 relating to vocational training, employment and social democracy). According to Decree No. 2015-654 of 10 June 2015, to be representative at sectoral level, employer organisations have to include a number of member companies representing at least 8% of all companies affiliated to employer organisations in the corresponding sector (member companies’ audience) or 8% of employees employed by the same organisation at the national, interprofessional or professional level (employed employees’ audience). The decree gives practical details on how to calculate the threshold of 8%. It also explains how employer organisations can oppose a collective agreement if they represent affiliated companies that employ more than 50% of the workforce of companies affiliated to employer organisations in the sector.

Social partners continue to be heavily involved in the management of certain social security provisions, such as public health insurance, unemployment benefits and social welfare boards (paritarisme). The social partners also play a central role in the supplementary private health insurance system (mutuelles, institutions de prévoyance) and pension plans. Furthermore, they are involved in the vocational training system. The national system of policy concertation is complemented by tripartite social dialogue at regional or local level. Law No. 2007-130 of 31 January 2007 on the modernisation of social dialogue makes it obligatory to consult national-level representatives of trade unions and employer organisations before proposing reforms in the fields of industrial relations, employment and vocational training. The government should provide these organisations with a policy document presenting the ‘diagnoses, objectives and principal options’ of the proposed reform. The social partners are then able to indicate whether they intend to initiate negotiations and how much time they need to reach an agreement. This procedure does not apply in ‘emergency situations’; in such cases, the government has to justify its decision, which can be legally challenged.

When drawing up a draft law following the consultation procedure, the government is not obliged to adopt the content of a collective agreement as it is. However, depending on the issue at hand, it must submit a bill to the National Collective Bargaining Commission (Commission nationale de la négociation collective, de l’emploi et de la formation professionnelle, CNNCEFP) for reforms concerning industrial relations, employment and vocational training.

The social partners that are represented by this body can assess whether or not the government’s proposals are in line with the relevant collective agreement and, if necessary, give their opinion.

Main tripartite and bipartite bodies

Note: * Social dialogue involving employer and trade union organisations, as well as civil society groups such as non-governmental organisations or academics.

In France, employees are represented through trade unions and structures made up of employees directly elected by all workers. Representation for workers has been obligatory since 1945 in all workplaces with at least 11 or 50 employees, depending on the structure. These bodies are largely regulated by law. Nevertheless, there is room for regulation through collective bargaining, as the social partners can create information and consultation bodies through collective agreement to improve information and consultation within companies. The social partners may negotiate improvements in facilities for employee representatives, such as more paid time off or more resources. Since the labour reform of 2017, the landscape of workplace-level employee representation has changed. This is due to the merger of the three main employee information and consultation bodies in all companies – staff representatives (délégués du personnel), the works council (comité d’entreprise), and the health, safety and working conditions committee – into a social and economic committee (comité social et économique, CSE). The CSE had to be formed in all companies concerned by 1 January 2020 at the latest.

Trade unions

Since 1968, trade unions’ rights have been recognised and trade unions have been entitled to appoint shop stewards (délégués syndicaux) in companies with at least 50 employees (Labour Code, Articles L2143-1 to L2143-23). These representatives have the power to negotiate and sign collective agreements at company level. Other worker representation bodies do not have this power if there is at least one shop steward. Since the reform of representativeness in 2008, unions not considered representative in an undertaking have been able to appoint a ‘representative of the union’ (représentant de la section syndicale) (Labour Code, Articles L2142-1-1 to L2142-1-4, who has similar rights to an appointed shop steward except the right to negotiate collective agreements. In accordance with a majority collective agreement, shop stewards may transfer their collective bargaining power to the CSE, which can then negotiate and form collective agreements.

Social and economic committees

CSEs are legal entities, and as collegial bodies are composed of members elected by the employees, representatives of the company management and representatives nominated by the unions (Labour Code, Articles L2311-1 to L.2315-22). Members are elected by all workers in every private sector establishment with more than 10 employees. CSEs progressively replaced the current elected bodies (staff representatives, works councils, and health, safety and working conditions committees_; see the table in the following section_), with the process completed by 1 January 2020.

CSEs can be formed at either company level or establishment level, when a central CSE is also established. CSEs receive information from employers on issues such as the economic and social aspects of the company and new technology. They are also consulted on the strategic direction of the company. In addition, they participate in formal consultations with employers on topics such as redundancies and vocational training (without formal negotiating power) and are responsible for managing social and cultural activities for which they have a budget, which is fixed by collective agreement. Otherwise, CSEs have a functioning budget equal to 0.2% of their companies’ annual payroll, or 0.22% in companies with over 2,000 employees. CSEs also take over the tasks of the former staff delegates (presenting individual and collective grievances to management and ensuring the implementation of legislation and collective agreements) and the role of the safety and working conditions committee.

In a group of companies, a group-level works council (comité de groupe) can be created (Labour Code, Articles L2331-1 to L2335-1), which enjoys similar rights to those of ordinary works councils. A company with a Europe-wide operation can create a European works council (comité d’entreprise européen) (Labour Code, Articles L2341-1), which can be merged, according to the Labour Code, with a group-level works council, if employee representatives agree.

Since the implementation of Law No. 2015-994 of 17 August 2015, bipartite regional committees (commissions syndical paritaires interprofessionnelles) have been set up in the 13 French regions to offer the 4.6 million employees working in small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 11 employees coverage by an information and consultative body (Labour Code, Article L.2234-1). The role of the committee is to provide legal information or advice to employees and employers; to discuss and adopt advice or statements about issues related to small and medium-sized enterprises (professional training, employment, health and safety, and the forecasting and management of skills).

According to Dares (2022a), in 2020, 41.4% of companies with 10 or more employees in the non-agricultural private sector (0.5 percentage points fewer than in 2019), representing 78.4% of employees in the field, were covered by at least one employee representation body. It can be observed that works councils are present in 35% of companies. These companies employ 74% of employees. CSEs are present in 35.5% of companies; these companies employ 74.9% of employees. At the time of the survey, 5.6% of companies still had one or more bodies in place that existed prior to the 2017 reform with new elections possibly taking place later in the year. The decline in the presence of union delegates, which began in 2019, continued in 2020. Health, safety and working conditions committees, which are mandatory in companies with 300 or more employees that have set up new employee representation bodies, are present in 79.4% of these companies. They are also present in 21.0% of companies with 50 to 299 employees.

Technical committees

Information and consultation bodies also exist in the public sector, but their organisation is different from that in the private sector. The main consultative bodies in the public sector are technical committees.

The reform of collective bargaining in the public sector brought about by Law No. 2010-751 of 5 July 2010 alters the way trade union representativeness is assessed in the public sector, in line with regulations that have been in place in the private sector since 2008. Since this legislation was implemented, workplace elections have determined the extent to which trade unions are involved in negotiations, can sign agreements and hold seats on tripartite advisory bodies.

The technical committee has different competences depending on the civil service divisions it belongs to, for example national civil service, public hospitals or local government.

Regulation, composition and competences of the representative body