Legality of agreement on social dialogue in craft industry upheld

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In March 2004, a French court ruled that a December 2001 agreement on social dialogue in the craft industry was legal. The agreement - which introduced a new levy on employers - was signed by the Craftwork Employers' Association (UPA) and the five representative trade union confederations, but other employers' organisations opposed it and have made several - so far unsuccessful - legal challenges to the accord.

An agreement on 'fostering a social dialogue in the craft industry' was signed on 12 December 2001 (FR0201143N) by the Craftwork Employers' Association (Union professionnelle artisanale, UPA), three UPA-affiliated sectoral crafts employers' associations and the five trade union confederations with representative status - the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), 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), the French Christian Workers’ Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC), the General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT), and the General Confederation of Labour-Force Ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail-Force Ouvrière, CGT-FO). The craft industry (artisanat) refers to small-scale artisanal production and services.

The agreement provides for a 0.15% contribution levied on the payrolls of companies concerned in order to fund training in collective bargaining for union representatives and employers, to boost the participation of company representative in joint negotiations and to supply better information for workers on the provisions of collective agreements. The deal was strongly condemned by the other two central employers' organisations - 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 several sectoral employers organisations whose memberships include small and medium-sized companies or crafts firms - notably the French Building Federation (Fédération française du bâtiment, FFB) and the Union of Metalworking Industries (Union des industries et métiers de la métallurgie, UIMM).

In spite of the opposition to the agreement, Elisabeth Guigou, the Minister of Employment and Solidarity in the outgoing Socialist-led government, opted on 25 April 2002 to extend it to all craft industry companies, thus requiring them to pay the 0.15% contribution, whether or not they are affiliated to UPA (FR0206101N). CGPME, MEDEF and the other employers' organisations opposed to the agreement responded by initiating legal proceedings against the decision to extend it, and by pressing craft employers to refuse to pay the 0.15% levy.

The State Council (Conseil d'Etat) - the highest administrative court in France - rejected the case brought against the extension decision by CGPME, MEDEF, FFB and UIMM on 30 June 2003. The four employers' organisations also took their case to the Paris Local Court (Tribunal de grande instance), which confirmed the legality of the 12 December agreement in a decision handed down on 18 March 2004.

The organisations that signed the craft industry social dialogue agreement stated that they were pleased with the March 2004 ruling. UPA described it as confirmation of its representative status in the craft industry. The organisations opposed to the agreement have yet to indicate whether they intend to appeal against the ruling.