Living and working in France

The year ended with another act of defiance towards the government by the unions: the three main union confederations (the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT), the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and the Workers’ Force (FO)) issued a joint declaration opposing the adoption of the immigration law on 19 December, which aims at better controlling immigration and improving the process of integrating non-nationals into French society. The confederations consider that this law ‘profoundly challenges the republican principles of equality and solidarity’. For them, ‘priority must be given to equal rights, especially social rights, the regularisation of all undocumented workers and solidarity with migrants’. On the employers’ side, the president of the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF) stressed that the economy needs massive immigration.

Between these two mobilisations, the government tried to revive social dialogue by faithfully transposing into law the national interprofessional agreement on value-sharing concluded by the social partners in February. The prime minister undertook to ‘fully transpose into law all the agreements reached between the social partners to build the new “working life pact”’ announced by the president. Negotiations to be held until mid-2024 must address several issues: the employment of senior citizens, the universal time-savings account, career paths, professional wear and tear, and retraining. In July 2023, she organised a conference on improving purchasing power, increasing wages, assessing the impact of social security contributions and benefits on income, and strengthening gender equality in the workplace. Finally, to tackle the pensions crisis, the government set up a National Council for Reconstruction to launch a debate on the future of France. One of the components, the Assise du Travail (the Labour Conference), produced a report to contribute to the working life pact.

For French workers, as elsewhere in Europe, the year was marked by a significant loss of purchasing power due to inflation. For its part, despite the end of the ‘whatever it takes’ principle (which helped to compensate for the loss of income suffered by citizens during the COVID-19 crisis), the government has maintained certain forms of aid, while at the same time urging the social partners to negotiate wages at sectoral level in order to offset the effects of inflation.

The year ended with rumours of a change of government, which were confirmed in January 2024 with the appointment of Gabriel Attal as prime minister, replacing Elisabeth Borne. The new prime minister immediately announced that he would meet ‘the nation’s driving forces’, including the social partners, in the first days of his mandate. In parallel, Catherine Vautrin, who replaces Olivier Dussopt at the head of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Economic Inclusion, wished to meet ‘the social partners (…) because the development of social dialogue is the guarantee of its sustainability’.

Time will tell whether the government’s desire for reform will now be based on social dialogue or whether it will continue to be directed by government.