French labour law

Last updated

French labour law is the system of labour law operating in France.

Contents

History

During the French Revolution, the Le Chapelier Law 1791 was passed to prohibit unions or guilds and strikes in particular, with a proclamation of "free enterprise". On 25 May 1864, the loi Ollivier was passed to reverse the prohibitions on strike action.

The prohibitions on forming trade unions were lifted by Waldeck Rousseau's laws passed on 21 March 1884.

Additional labor laws were introduced during the Twentieth Century. [1] Between 1936 and 1938 the Popular Front enacted a law mandating 12 days (2 weeks) each year of paid vacation for workers, and the Matignon Accords (1936). This established the right to organise a union, to bargain collectively, a legal right to strike, and was followed by enactments which limited the work week to 40 hours, excluding overtime, and guaranteed paid holidays. The Grenelle agreements negotiated on 25 and 26 May, in the middle of the May 1968 crisis, reduced the working week to 44 hours and created trade union sections in each enterprise. [2] The minimum wage was also increased by 25%. [3]

In 2000 Lionel Jospin's government then enacted the 35-hour workweek, down from 39 hours. Five years later, conservative prime minister Dominique de Villepin enacted the New Employment Contract (CNE). Addressing the demands of employers asking for more flexibility in French labour laws, the CNE sparked criticism from trade unions and opponents claiming it was lending favour to contingent work. In 2006 he then attempted to pass the First Employment Contract (CPE) through a vote by emergency procedure, but that it was met by students and unions' protests. President Jacques Chirac finally had no choice but to repeal it. [4]

The "right to disconnect" law came into force in January 2017, which means that companies with more than 50 workers will be obliged to draw up a charter of good conduct. This charter sets out the hours in which staff are not supposed to send or answer emails. [5]

French labour code

The French labour code (code du travail) is the national which governs work and labor relations in the country.

Individual rights

Enforcement

In France, the Inspection du travail is the body responsible for checking whether the provisions of the Labour Code or collective agreements are correctly applied in companies.

The labor inspectors primarily control whether companies apply the Labor Code on all points : employment contracts, illegal work, working hours, etc. However, the Inspection du travail cannot resolve disputes related to the employment contract, as this is the role of the Labour Court. [6]

Pensions

Unemployment protection

See also

Notes

  1. Monthly Review of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics Volume 3 1916 P.106
  2. fr:section syndicale d'entreprise December 27, 1968 law
  3. fr:SMIG
  4. Alain-Christian Monkam, "French Employment Law", Village de la Justice, 2011, http://www.village-justice.com/articles/French-Employment,10968.html
  5. "French workers get 'right to disconnect' from emails out of hours". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  6. Professor Laurent Gamet (2017). Labour inspection and repression in France (in French). Dalloz. p. 439.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)

Related Research Articles

A trade union or labor union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organisation of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.

Labour laws, labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, employer, and union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strike action</span> Work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work

Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike and industrial action in British English, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labor became important in factories and mines. As striking became a more common practice, governments were often pushed to act. When government intervention occurred, it was rarely neutral or amicable. Early strikes were often deemed unlawful conspiracies or anti-competitive cartel action and many were subject to massive legal repression by state police, federal military power, and federal courts. Many Western nations legalized striking under certain conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">General Confederation of Labour (France)</span> French trade union center

The General Confederation of Labour is a national trade union center, founded in 1895 in the city of Limoges. It is the first of the five major French confederations of trade unions.

Solidarity action is industrial action by a trade union in support of a strike initiated by workers in a separate corporation, but often the same enterprise, group of companies, or connected firm.

The 35-hour workweek is a labour reform policy adopted in France in February 2000, under Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's Plural Left government. Promoted by Minister of Labour Martine Aubry, it was adopted in two phases: the Aubry 1 law in June 1998 and the Aubry 2 law in January 2000. The previous legal working week was 39 hours, established by President François Mitterrand, also a member of the Socialist Party. The 35-hour working week had been on the Socialist Party's 1981 electoral program, titled 110 Propositions for France, but was not pursued because of the poor state of the economy.

<i>Canada Labour Code</i> Canadian employment legislation

The Canada Labour Code is an Act of the Parliament of Canada to consolidate certain statutes respecting labour. The objective of the Code is to facilitate production by controlling strikes & lockouts, occupational safety and health, and some employment standards.

The Matignon Agreements were signed on 7 June 1936, between the Confédération générale de la production française (CGPF) employers' organization, the CGT trade union and the French state. They were signed during a massively followed general strike initiated after the election of the Popular Front in May 1936, which had led to the creation of a left-wing government headed by Léon Blum (SFIO). Also known as the "Magna Carta of French Labor", these agreements were signed at the Hôtel Matignon, official residence of the head of the government, hence their name.

The eight-hour day was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses of working time.

A contrat nouvelle embauche, known as a new employment contract, new recruitment contract or new-job contract in English is a French employment contract proposed by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (UMP) which came into force by ordinance on August 2, 2010. The measure was enacted by the prime minister after he was authorized by Parliament to take legislative measures to stimulate employment. Unlike the later First Employment Contract (CPE) which was repealed in 2010, after protests the CNE has been used as a job contract despite opposition from trade unions.

A company or "yellow" union is a worker organization which is dominated or unduly influenced by an employer and is therefore not an independent trade union. Company unions are contrary to international labour law. They were outlawed in the United States by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act §8(a)(2), due to their use as agents for interference with independent unions. However, company unions persist in many countries.

Japanese labour law is the system of labour law operating in Japan.

The Inspection du travail is a French specialized body of civil servants, charged of the surveillance of employment and labour law in firms, created in 1892 during the Third Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of labour law</span>

The history of labour law concerns the development of labour law as a way of regulating and improving the life of people at work. In the civilisations of antiquity, the use of slave labour was widespread. Some of the maladies associated with unregulated labour were identified by Pliny as "diseases of slaves."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian labour law</span> Laws regulating labour in India

Indian labour law refers to law regulating labour in India. Traditionally, the Indian government at the federal and state levels has sought to ensure a high degree of protection for workers, but in practice, this differs due to the form of government and because labour is a subject in the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution. The Minimum Wages Act 1948 requires companies to pay the minimum wage set by the government alongside limiting working weeks to 40 hours. Overtime is strongly discouraged with the premium on overtime being 100% of the total wage. The Payment of Wages Act 1936 mandates the payment of wages on time on the last working day of every month via bank transfer or postal service. The Factories Act 1948 and the Shops and Establishment Act 1960 mandate 15 working days of fully paid vacation leave and 7 casual leaves each year to each employee, with an additional 7 fully paid sick days. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 gives female employees of every company the right to take 6 months' worth of fully paid maternity leave. It also provides for 6 weeks worth of paid leaves in case of miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy. The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation and the Employees' State Insurance, governed by statutory acts provide workers with necessary social security for retirement benefits and medical and unemployment benefits respectively. Workers entitled to be covered under the Employees' State Insurance are also entitled to 90 days worth of paid medical leaves. A contract of employment can always provide for more rights than the statutory minimum set rights. The Indian parliament passed four labour codes in the 2019 and 2020 sessions. These four codes will consolidate 44 existing labour laws. They are: The Industrial Relations Code 2020, The Code on Social Security 2020, The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and The Code on Wages 2019.

In labour law, unfair dismissal is an act of employment termination made without good reason or contrary to the country's specific legislation.

The SA8000 Standard is an auditable certification standard that encourages organizations to develop, maintain, and apply socially acceptable practices in the workplace. It was developed in 1989 by Social Accountability International, formerly the Council on Economic Priorities, by an advisory board consisting of trade unions, NGOs, civil society organizations and companies. The SA8000's criteria were developed from various industry and corporate codes to create a common standard for social welfare compliance. The current (2014) version of the standard is built on earlier 2001, 2004 and 2008 versions.

Turkish labour law provides a number of protections to employees, governed by the Labor Code, Trade Union Law, and the Constitution.

The right to disconnect is a proposed human right regarding the ability of people to disconnect from work and primarily not to engage in work-related electronic communications such as e-mails or messages during non-work hours. The modern working environment has been drastically changed by new communication and information technologies. The boundary between work life and home life has shrunk with the introduction of digital tools into employment. While digital tools bring flexibility and freedom to employees they also can create an absence of limits, leading to excessive interference in the private lives of employees. Several countries, primarily in Europe, have some form of the right to disconnect included in their law, while in some cases it is present in the policy of many large companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Khomri law</span>

The law no. 2016-1088 of August 8, 2016 relating to work, the modernization of social dialogue and the securing of professional careers is a piece of national legislation in France relating to employment. It is commonly known as the El Khomri law or the Loi travail. It evoked wide protests by labour unions around the country. The law came into force by a gazette notification on 9 August 2016.