Survey examines role of women in works councils

Hege, Adelheid

Overview

Article

Survey examines role of women in works councils

Published: 10 October 2001

Adelheid Hege

Gender equality

Employee representation

A study published in 2001 by the IRES research institute examines the position of women in works councils in France. It finds that women are generally well represented in the position of works council secretary. However, access by women and men to employee representative positions differs, depending on the particular characteristics of the workplace. Women are more likely to be works council secretaries in small, newly-created and non-unionised companies.

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A study published in 2001 by the IRES research institute examines the position of women in works councils in France. It finds that women are generally well represented in the position of works council secretary. However, access by women and men to employee representative positions differs, depending on the particular characteristics of the workplace. Women are more likely to be works council secretaries in small, newly-created and non-unionised companies.

In 1995, the Institute for Economic and Social Research (Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales, IRES), in collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Solidarity, conducted a nationwide survey of the secretaries of works councils, aimed at giving a clear picture of the day-to-day operation of these representative bodies. The study (Les comités d'entreprise, enquête sur les élus, les activités et les moyens[Works councils: survey of elected officials, activities and resources], IRES/DARES, Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité/L'Atelier, Paris,1998) was the first comprehensive snapshot of works councils since their creation in 1945 .

The 1995 survey data has now been reprocessed to examine the position of women in works councils. This exercise has been the subject of two publications in 2001; the first by the Ministry of Employment and Solidarity (in Premières informations et premières synthèses, No. 15.2, April 2001); and the second by IRES in Lettre de l'IRESNo. 48, July 2001. Below we summarise some of the main findings of the study on the situation of women.

Works councils and their secretaries

It is not easy to give an overall description of the position of the secretary of the works council- the people surveyed in the IRES study. They are one part of a complex range of Trade Union and representative duties within individual workplaces. Works council s serve a dual role: they are entitled to be informed and consulted by companies on a range of issues; and they manage a social and cultural activities budget. Other representation duties are the jurisdiction of different bodies and structures, such as: workforce delegate s (responsible for monitoring the implementation of collective agreements); workplace health and safety committee s; and trade union delegate s (responsible for negotiation with employers). The configuration of employee representation systems takes on different forms in particular workplaces. The works council may be the sole form, in which case some representation duties are not fulfilled, or they may be just one cog in a sophisticated representation and trade union system. The importance of the roles held by men and women in this network changes accordingly.

Statistical overview

In 1995, some 40% of works councils had a female secretary. Therefore, the proportion of secretaries who are women is higher that the percentage of all voters in works council elections who are women (31%). A high number of women secretaries in small workplaces goes some way to explain this finding (small works councils have a secretary position just like their larger counterparts) - see table 1 below. A large number of female secretaries are to be found in male-dominated companies.

**Table 1: Distribution of works council secretaries by sex and company size (in %)**
.	Company size in employees
.	50-99	100-199	200-499	500-1,000	over 1,000
Male secretaries	57	59	62	77	80
Female secretaries	43	41	38	23	20

Source: IRES.

Women secretaries are mostly to be found in small workplaces while few hold this position in committees founded prior to 1970. Women secretaries are more numerous in works councils with non-unionised members (50% of secretaries) than in those elected only on a trade union slate (29% of secretaries). Works councils in large workplaces, those created before 1970 and works councils in solidly unionised companies are essentially the bastion of male trade unionists, who largely outnumber their non-unionised colleagues. These figures clearly reflect changes that have occurred over time. Male-dominated, well-established, strongly unionised works councils are now giving way to less unionised ones with stronger female representation.

Overall, 'female works councils' have more modest resources than those run by men - see table 2 below. The number of elected officials is often lower than the statutory requirement, and these officials more rarely receive training. These 'female works councils' use experts less often - 60% of male unionised secretaries are in a works council using auditors, compared with 16% of female non-unionised secretaries - and have tighter social and cultural activities budgets. Overall, female unionised secretaries have more resources and are better trained than their non-union counterparts, but represent a much smaller percentage (14%) of the total number of secretaries.

**Table 2: Works council resources according to sex and unionisation of secretaries (in %)**
.	Unionised secretaries .		Non-unionised secretaries
.	Men	Women	Men	Women
Social budget under 0.5 % of payroll	19	21	38	32
Number of elected officials below statutory requirement	14	22	29	34
Works council elected officials receiving specific training	55	50	19	16
Works council using accountants to audit company accounts	60	48	15	16

Source: IRES.

A further distinctive characteristic of non-unionised, especially female, secretaries is that they are, on average, younger than their counterparts elected on a trade union slate - 39% of female non-unionised works council secretaries are under 35 years of age. They are also more likely to have been recently elected to their positions - see table 3 below. Half of male unionised works council secretaries have served as elected officials for over 10 years. Statistically, the increasing percentage of women secretaries has had a knock-on effect, in that incumbents are now younger and less likely to be unionised. Female secretaries elected on a trade union slate have a similar profile to that of their male unionised counterparts. In 1995, many were over 45 years of age and had served as elected officials for over 10 years.

**Table 3: Age of works council secretaries and length of service as elected officials (in %)**
.	Unionised secretaries .		Non-unionised secretaries
.	Men	Women	Men	Women
Aged under 35	14	17	32	39
Aged over 45	45	40	31	22
Length of service under five years	31	34	47	55
Length of service over 10 years	50	42	26	20

Source: IRES.

Generally speaking, the percentage of women secretaries in unionised and non-unionised works councils is quite different. Non-union affiliated works councils – newly-created or long-standing, large or small – distribute secretary positions to both men and women on an essentially equal basis. However, this is far from being the case among unionised councils, where there are clearly a predominant number of male secretaries. This percentage increases with the number of years the council has been in existence and the size of the workplace.

Outstanding questions and qualitative research findings

In addition to statistical studies, qualitative enquiries were conducted in around 20 companies to gain a better understanding of the role of both men and women in the representation system and in the network of the many trade union-related and other representative functions both inside and outside companies. These enquiries focused on unionised works councils in workplaces with a workforce split between women and men in proportions of around 60% et 40% in either direction.

The qualitative enquiries indicate that holding multiple trade union and other positions is the fundamental distinguishing feature between the careers as representatives of men (who tend to hold multiple positions) and women (who do not). While their peers recognise the high-quality local commitment of women, they remain largely restricted to grassroots representative positions. Representative positions reaching beyond the individual workplace are essentially male bastions. Consequently, women rarely occupy trade union delegate positions carrying genuine negotiating authority. Women are practically non-existent within supra-workplace structures (company-level works councils and company-level trade union representatives). Fewer women hold multiple trade union mandates within and outside the workplace, compared with a high percentage of men, who engage in the whole gamut of representation duties, especially in large companies.

Interviews also found that representatives have a low level of influence on employment inequalities between men and women, though few women abstained from addressing the topic with the researchers. Local trade unionists are, however, reluctant to debate specifically 'female' issues (disparities in wages, careers and working time management). These issues are not seen as subjects for collective demand strategies, but are rather dealt with as individual, case-by-case issues. Women, who do not really have access to the 'nerve centre' of representation systems, therefore appear to have little influence in drawing up the collective issue agenda to be promoted by representatives.

The equality debate does not appear to be a major concern for representative bodies. Like their male colleagues, female trade unionists are concerned about the future of the trade union movement within the workplace, which is threatened by a largely non-committal attitude among young workers of both sexes. This concern, according to the study, overshadows the drive for gender equality in representative bodies, trade unions and the workplace.

The difficulty in finding people willing to carry on the tradition of trade unionism also emerged from the statistical survey. This indicates that representative bodies and the wish to act as a representative are not in themselves challenged - instead, what emerges from the study is the apparently unstoppable development of younger, smaller bodies operating in a more haphazard fashion. Although perhaps less effective and lacking outside links, these bodies distribute representative responsibilities to both sexes on a more equitable basis.

Commentary

The IRES study allows a more accurate measurement of the number and role of women in a particular type of employee representative body, ie works councils, in 1995. However, many more of this type of study must be conducted if a more comprehensive picture of the role of women in the workplace is to be developed in France. (Adelheid Hege, IRES)

Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.

Eurofound (2001), Survey examines role of women in works councils, article.