2023-12-01 13:00:03
IMore than a century ago, the French industrial relations system was built around sectoral collective bargaining. But for more than forty years, numerous institutional reforms have aimed to promote collective bargaining at company level: the Auroux laws of 1982 first established the annual obligation to negotiate in companies with more than 50 employees. employees, the laws of 2004 and 2008 then attempted to strengthen the autonomy of company negotiations in relation to the branch; the reforms of 2016 and 2017 broke with the principle of hierarchy of standards (according to which a company agreement can only replace a sector agreement if it includes stipulations more favorable to employees), to prefer a distribution a priori subjects respectively negotiated by the branch or the company.
These reforms are motivated by several arguments such as the risk of hindering competition that sectoral negotiation would induce by imposing salary standards on companies in the same professional field, the too slow adjustment of salaries in the face of crises or even the insufficient consideration of the economic reality of companies by the branches, with the idea that negotiating as close as possible to the daily lives of employees and their employers would be more “effective”.
What is it in practice? First observation: negotiation at company level is far from being a generalized practice. According to data from the survey “Social dialogue in business » from the Directorate for the Animation of Research, Studies and Statistics at the Ministry of Labor, only 18% of companies with 10 or more employees in the non-agricultural private sector initiated negotiations in 2021, nevertheless covering 63% of employees . Negotiation remains the prerogative of medium and large companies (nearly 95% of companies with more than 500 employees, comprising 40% of employees, negotiate).
Although the number of company agreements has increased significantly over the past forty years, it is more an intensification of existing practices than a diffusion to new organizations. The branch collective agreement, which covers 98% of employees in France, then appears very useful when corporate social dialogue does not exist: it plays the role of a safety net, crucial in low-wage sectors, such as in cleaning or sanitation.
Prevent dumping
Second observation, employers do not perceive sectoral collective agreements, which cover 98% of employees in France, as a blocking element. In fact, companies have so far made very little use of the various possibilities for exemptions introduced by the law in a way that is less favorable to employees. In a context of strong price competition, as in the case of mass distribution, where wages are relatively low, we see that sector agreements are used to prevent social dumping practices, both by union and employer actors. .
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