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During the second half of 2000, agreements on introducing the 35-hour working week were signed in France's major banks, after the sectoral-level social partners failed to deal with the issue in an industry-wide agreement concluded in January. Sectoral negotiations will now deal with working time reduction for the many smaller banks which have not signed a company-level agreement.
A new collective agreement for the 230,000 employees in the banking sector was signed on 10 January 2000, but did not broach the issue of the reduction of working time (FR0001133F). Negotiations on introducing the 35-hour working week in banking (in line with the recent legislation) had earlier led to an agreement in January 1999 between the Association of French Banks (Association Française des Banques, AFB) and a single trade union, SNB-CGC (FR9901151F). This deal was challenged in the courts by the other unions represented in banking - CFDT, CFTC, CGT and CGT-FO. The Appeal Court (Cour d'appel) ultimately annulled the agreement on 16 May 2000 (FR0006168N), leaving AFB relatively hostile to any renegotiation at sector level.
Negotiations on the 35-hour week were thus launched at company level from June 200 onwards, mainly among the large banks. Considering the particular history of each bank, negotiations were specific in each case. The BNP-Paribas merger (FR9903169N) in particular provided an unusual context for the negotiation and application of this type of agreement. Consequently, the negotiations have finally resulted in agreements that vary markedly from one bank to another. However, the backdrop was the same in a sector undergoing extensive restructuring: the major banks saw the negotiation of these agreements as an opportunity to continue their planned restructuring of staffing and organisation, and to address the problem of their personnel's demographic profile (between 2000 and 2008, 25% of banking employees will reach retirement age, with a further 33% following them between 2003 and 2012). After this round of company-level negotiations, 80% of the industry's staff are now covered by a 35-hour week agreement, but only half of the banks are involved. Some 200 small banks have been left out, either because of a lack of trade union representation or small staff numbers. Sector-level negotiations are thus due to take place between AFB and the unions on 21-22 December, in order to lay down a framework applicable to AFB's entire membership
The main negotiations from June onwards occurred at BNP-Paribas, Crédit Lyonnais, Société Générale and Crédit du Nord, in that order. Several themes were common to the bargaining in all the banks. First, management in each case was keen to obtain "majority agreements" - ie deals with with those unions that together received the votes of the majority of the employees at the last workplace elections of employee representatives - because this is the criterion for receiving state subsidies for moving to a 35-hour week (FR0001137F). Other management objectives were the complete revision of the bank holidays system specific to the banking industry and the reorganisation of work, particularly the extension of service counter opening times.
The Crédit du Nord bank (with 6,000 staff) had a very specific position, in that its employees enjoy perks that do not exist in other banks, and the unions formed an alliance thwarting the management's pursuit of a majority agreement on the 35-hour week. In particular, the management planned to abolish previous arrangements for days off to prepare for giving birth or for retirement, and to withdraw extra days off for staff with disabilities: in the agreement finally reached, these days off were included in the reduction of working time.
Société Générale was the last of the big banks to sign an agreement. The agreement there was detailed and relatively satisfactory to the unions: three unions signed it - CFTC, CGT and SNB-CGC. CGT-FO did not sign, while CFDT challenged the agreement, which should come into effect in January 2001, and decided closely to monitor the way in which it will be implemented. Under the agreement, management commits itself to retaining overall staffing levels and to recruiting 2,200 employees over the 2001-2 period (compared with 800 between 1997 and 1999). The deal does not provide for any wage restraint. Employees were consulted on the agreement through a ballot, in which 7,434 employees participated (out of the group's total workforce of 30,000). Management was careful to separate negotiations on work organisation from subsequent bargaining on the 35-hour week, to the chagrin of the unions.
The BNP-Paribas agreement (signed on 20 July 2000 - FR0008181N) appears more problematic, mainly due to the merger of the two banks. The new company's plan to reduce the workforce (by 4,311 jobs over three years) as part of the restructuring process will largely offset the job-creating consequences of the reduction of working time. Management attempted to exclude part-time employees from the remit of the negotiations but back-pedalled after switchboard operators went on strike. On pay, in the autumn the management rejected a rise requested by the unions, in the light of the bank's very high profits, as it felt that the reduction of working time was equivalent to a 5.5% increase in hourly labour costs. On the issue of reorganisation, the management sought to take advantage of the 35-hour week agreement to increase flexibility, particularly by extending branch opening times. Tensions and contradictions inherent in the agreement surfaced in its implementation through local negotiations on the allocation of new days off introduced in connection with the reduction of working time. CFDT faced internal dissent, as the local branch signed the agreement against the advice of the national banking federation. Without CFDT's signature, the management would not have achieved a majority agreement and could not have claimed state subsidy.
At the Crédit Lyonnais, an agreement was signed on 16 September 2000 by CFTC, CGT-FO and SNB-CGC. CGT and CFDT issued a press statement critical of the conditions under which the agreement had been signed. On 25 July, the Tribunal de grande instance (the second tier of the court system) had ruled that the management had not complied with its responsibility to inform the works council of its plans by the correct procedure. The management, which wanted to conclude matters very quickly and be the first major bank to sign a 35-hour week deal, was obliged to amend its information procedure. With regard to the content of the agreement, CFDT's complaint hinged mainly on the non-inclusion of employees affected by an earlier "Robien law" agreement (a quarter of the staff) in the agreement on the reduction of working time (the 1995 Robien law grants a partial exemption from employers' social security contributions, if an agreement provides for a large reduction in hours worked, combined with a reorganisation of working time, enabling jobs to be created or redundancies avoided - FR9705146F). In other areas, the agreement was similar to that at BNP, in that the number of days to be worked per year was reduced from 219 to 205 (except for top and senior managerial staff) and wage levels were maintained. Some 900 new jobs were announced in connection with the reduction of working time, and 250 jobs were saved.
Two themes are to be dealt with in the forthcoming sectoral negotiations in banking - the reduction of working time and early retirement. On working time, the unions want to avoid the risk of a "catch-all agreement" that would reduce the sector-level provisions to the lowest common denominator of the provisions agreed at company level. AFB is seeking to introduce a "tool box" of measures that would provide the smaller banks with a framework of working time provisions superior to that provided by law, but is opposed to an agreement imposed on all banks. The unions feel, however, that the sectoral collective agreement should at least resolve the issue of bank holidays and of days taken off before and after holiday weekends, an issue which the big banks all reviewed as part of the negotiations on the reduction of working time. The unions also wanted to discuss pay increases and a revision of job classifications in the negotiations, but management rejected this.
On the issue of early retirement, AFB has proposed a system aimed at avoiding the forthcoming peak in the numbers of employees retiring at the same time, and at achieving a more balanced age profile among banking employees. The idea is to conclude an agreement providing for early retirement compensated for by new recruitment, with employers being exempt from social security contributions for the new employees, as is the practice in the motor manufacturing industry (FR9908103N). In March 2000, AFB proposed a plan whereby employees aged over 58 could retire early, with their employment contract suspended rather than terminated, and with one new recruit taken on for every four early retirements. The unions responded with a counter-proposal of early retirement from 55, with one new recruit taken on for every two early retirements, and the possibility of progressive early retirement. AFB opposed this, as its objective is to smooth out the demographic peak in retirements and not to allow a massive wave of early retirements five years in advance of retirement age.
The company-level negotiations on the 35 hour-week enabled each of the main banks to adapt the statutory provisions to their own requirements related to restructuring. It is also from this perspective that AFB sees the forthcoming sector-level negotiations as a way of obtaining an industry-wide early retirement plan. The unions obtained more or less advantageous agreements, varying from one employer to another, and in the sectoral talks they will seek to avoid lowest common denominator rules for the small banks, and to obtain a satisfactory early retirement plan. (Sabine Montagne, IRES)