Freyssinet, Jacques

This report examines the different approaches taken by PECs in 11 Member States of the EU, focusing on the overall significance of the agreements for employment and collective bargaining policies. It highlights the wide-ranging content of the agreements – covering innovative measures on working time, wage structures and work organisation – and points to patterns occurring in the different countries or sectors of industry.

Late 2003 and early 2004 saw the presentation of three reports on employment law and policy commissioned by the French government. It is expected that some of the reports' proposals will be included in a draft law on 'mobilisation on employment' that the government is due to place before parliament in spring 2004.

A report from France's Economic and Social Council on the social integration of young people of foreign extraction, adopted in September 2002, highlights the interdependent and cumulative nature of the discrimination affecting these members of society. Problems include disparities in achievement in the school system, unequal access to employment and concentration in deprived areas.

In June 2001, France's National Economic Planning Agency published a report seeking to present "the most balanced possible assessment" of the application so far of the recent legislation on the introduction of the 35-hour working week. The report presents a generally positive evaluation and contains some proposals that have fuelled controversy among the social partners.

The reduction in the level of unemployment in France over the past two years accelerated during July 1999. This development has fuelled government optimism, but trade unions and employers' organisations were more varied in their reactions.

This record reviews 1998's main developments in industrial relations in France