Debate on trade union funding continues

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Over 2000 and 2001, French trade unions and politicians have been examining the controversial issue of trade union funding arrangements. Following a meeting between the five representative union confederations and the Minister of Employment and Solidarity in November 2001, the government will take some limited initiatives in this area, such as clarifying unions' tax status.

In January 2000, a report by the General Social Affairs Inspectorate (Inspection générale des affaires sociales, IGAS) - part of which was published in the Le Monde newspaper (on 1 August 2000) – highlighted a study into the accounts of the social partner-run compulsory complementary pension fund (Caisse de retraites interentreprises, CRI) in order to demonstrate questionable trade union funding mechanisms (FR0002138N).

During 2000, the five trade union confederations with representative status at intersectoral level - the General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT), the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), the General Confederation of Labour-Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail-Force ouvrière, CGT-FO), the French Christian Workers' Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) and the French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff-General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff (Confédération française de l'encadrement-Confédération générale des cadres, CFE-CGC) - met on several occasions to lay the groundwork for the development of a joint approach to a reform of union funding (FR0008187F).

On 4 October 2000, CFE-CGC, CFTC, CGT and CGT-FO sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, requesting that the government make a commitment to a consultation process on the funding issue. In their letter, which underscored their growing consultative roles in many public bodies and public interest activities, the four union confederations expressed the desire to see an 'irrefutable public legal framework for the various potential funding and other arrangements' (such as office space provided to unions, local authority subsidies, and unions' legal and tax status). The four unions also raised the issue of union rights and funding in the private sector (FR0109105F).

CFDT, which took part in the discussions with the other unions, refused to put its name to this letter on the grounds that it considered it tantamount to a request for state financing of trade unions. CFDT reiterated its opposition to a public funding system similar to the representativeness-based scheme that already exists for French political parties. All five representative union confederations oppose – to varying degrees – representativeness-based public trade union funding legislation.

Several parliamentary initiatives have buttressed trade union attempts to improve union funding arrangements. Communist members of parliament tabled an amendment to the government's 'social modernisation' bill in early 2001, which would allow regional and local authorities to award operating subsidies to trade unions (FR0101121F). Socialist members suggested increasing the tax deduction for trade union dues from 30% to 50%. In addition, Henri Emmanuelli, the chair of the National Assembly's finance committee and Jean Le Garrec, chair of the social affairs committee, put forward a bill to establish public funding for trade unions. This funding would in part be proportional to results obtained in workplace elections of employee representatives. In addition, the proposed legislation would also set a mandatory contribution to trade unions for all employers – except the state - of at least 0.01% of the value-added produced by the company. This would be identical to the contributions currently made by companies to fund employers' associations.

Those union organisations that are not deemed representative at intersectoral level - including the Unitary Union Federation (Fédération Syndicale Unitaire, FSU), the Group of 10 (Groupe des Dix-Solidaires)/Solidarity, Unity, Democracy (Solidaire, Unitaire, Démocratique, SUD) and the National Federation of Independent Unions (Union nationale des syndicats autonomes, UNSA) - consider unions' representative status (FR0006170F) as a crucial feature and argue that public funding must be subject to it.

The parliamentary schedule is not conducive to the proposal put forward by Mr Emmanuelli and Mr Le Garrec. Parliament may study the idea early in January or February 2002, but it is uncertain whether the legislation could be passed before the June 2002 general election.

Nevertheless, the government's 2002 budget law should include some of the provisions contained in the Emmanuelli/Le Garrec plan. The five representative union confederations met with the Minister of Employment and Solidarity, Elisabeth Guigou on 15 November 2001. In the wake of this meeting, prior to a final decision from the Prime Minister, the parties appeared to agree on the need for clarification of trade unions' tax status in terms of exemption from corporate taxes, office space taxes in the Ile de France (the Paris region) and local industrial taxes. There also seemed to be some consensus on the need for increased public money for the next industrial tribunal (Conseils de prud'hommes) elections in late 2002 (FR9710171F) and a 10% increase in subsidies paid to trade unions for union training. Any change on the latter point would not alter the current funding distribution arrangements, whereby CFDT, CGT and CGT-FO each receive two-ninths of the overall budget, while CFE-CGC and CFTC receive one-ninth each and the FSU and UNSA share the remaining one-ninth.

In addition, the Court of Auditors (Cour des Comptes), an independent body responsible for monitoring public spending, has drafted a report on state subsidies to trade unions, which should be made public in 2002.