Precarious status quo in elections to boards of social security funds

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In September-October 2001, the French social partners appointed new members to the boards of the various jointly managed funds within the general social security scheme. The earlier decision of the MEDEF and CGPME employers' organisations to pull out of these bodies had led to speculation about major upheavals. In the event, the elections resulted in no changes in the chairs of the national funds. However, this status quo seems precarious.

In June 2001, claiming that the government's policy had reduced the autonomy of the social partners in the management of the general social security scheme to a bare minimum, 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) CGPME decided not to appoint representatives to the boards of the various jointly managed funds within the scheme (FR0107167N). Employers are now represented on the boards solely by the Craftwork Employers' Association (Union Professionnelle des Artisans, UPA), which has stated that it 'neither aims, nor aspires to, represent all businesses'.

Since 1995, there has been an equal number of employers' and employees' representatives on the boards of the jointly managed funds. The absence of MEDEF and CGPME has altered the composition of the boards, and upset this balance. There was considerable speculation as to what would happen in early October 2001, when the chairs of these boards were to be re-elected. The General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT) had let it be known clearly that it was ready 'to assume responsibilities commensurate with its true level of representativeness among employees'. In practice, that meant that CGT was running for the chair of one of the fund boards. The General Confederation of Labour-Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail-Force ouvrière, CGT-FO) publicly declared its ambition to return to the chair of the National Employed Workers' Sickness Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale d'assurance maladie des travailleurs salariés, CNAMTS), while stating that this would necessarily mean the end of the policy of controlling expenditure carried out since 1995.

In the event, the elections for the chairs of the national social security funds' boards led to no changes at all. The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) retained the leadership of the CNAMTS. The French Christian Workers' Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) retained the leadership of the National Family Allowances Fund (Caisse nationale des allocations familiales, CNAF). 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) retained the leadership of the National Employed Workers' Old-Age Insurance Fund (Caisse nationale d'assurance vieillesse des travailleurs salariés, CNAVTS).

With MEDEF out of the frame, it was UPA that took over the chair of the Central Agency for Social Security Organisations (Agence centrale des organismes de Sécurité sociale, ACOSS). The employers thus kept control of a sensitive body responsible for managing all the staff employed by the general scheme.

This status quo, however, is a precarious one for at least two reasons:

• after the elections for the chairs of the national funds come those for control of the local ones (there are more than 200 regional and especially départemental funds). UPA cannot head all those bodies previously chaired by MEDEF and CGPME. CGT intends to increase the number of funds it chairs, while CGT-FO will try to win back as many as possible. However, the new balance of power will not be clear until all the local results are collected; and

• more importantly, the funds' boards must each address serious issues. In the case of the CNAMTS, it is that of the establishment of a new form of relationship with the healthcare professions (FR0105157F), for the CNAVTS it is the future of retirement pensions (FR0107173F), and for the ACOSS, it is the application of the 35-hour week for the workers employed by the general social security scheme (FR0012109N). Additionally they are all facing the overall problem of the future of joint management of the social security system.

On this general issue, as on those specific to each of them, negotiations between employers and unions have got under way, as, more recently, have negotiations between the government and the social partners. However, no decision is likely to be taken before the national presidential election in May 2002. The recent appointment of the new chairs of the national funds thus seems more of a temporary solution than one that provides pointers for the future.