Agreement signed on workplace health

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In December 2000, a number of French trade union and employers' confederations signed an agreement on "health at the workplace". The accord provides for longer periods between medical check-ups for employees, and a greater role for trade unions in prevention policy.

On 19 December 2000, an agreement on "health at the workplace" was signed by two employers' associations - the Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF) and the General Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Confédération générale des petites et moyennes entreprises, CGPME) - and three trade union confederations - CFDT, CFTC and CFE-CGC). The wording of the agreement had been finalised on the 13 September 2000. However, the debate over the new agreement on the UNEDIC unemployment insurance system was in full swing at that time and none of the trade unions was in a position to sign the agreement (FR0101114F).

There are several shortcomings in the current industrial healthcare system, including: a shortage of industrial doctors; the rushed and institutionalised nature of annual medical check-ups; very few doctors on site to organise prevention programmes; and questions as to the independence of industrial doctors vis-à-vis employers. A new special compensation fund for asbestos victims set up by the government and the significant increase in industrial illnesses have highlighted the shortcomings of the French industrial healthcare system (FR0009189N).

Against this backdrop, the 19 December agreement introduces the following two innovations:

• the current system of annual compulsory employee medical check-ups with an industrial doctor will only be continued for jobs involving "specific risks". For all other jobs, check-ups will take place every two years. Sector-level negotiations will establish the list of jobs involving "specific risks". A "letter of intent," published in parallel with the signing of the agreement, stipulates that the time saved by doctors thanks to increased time between medical check-ups should be used to boost their on-site activity; and

• trade unions will play a more significant role in prevention policy, with the establishment of bipartite regional industrial health "observatories" and intersectoral département-level committees to develop prevention in small companies.

MEDEF's proposal to have some medical check-ups conducted by general practitioners rather than industrial doctors met with across-the-board opposition, including from the medical community. This proposal has now been referred to a working party.

While there is broad consensus on the new measures relating to prevention, there are major differences of opinion on the agreement's provisions on longer periods of time between check-ups. In the view of the trade union confederations which dis not sign the agreement - CGT and CGT-FO- the definition of risks, and therefore, the time between check-ups cannot be left up to employers, even within the framework of sector-level agreements.