Country report France - Construction Labour Research

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European Institute for Construction Labour Research – Country Report FranceCLRTable 11: Employees According to Trades in Percentages1970 1980 1990 2000 2002Construction industry (gros œuvre) 54.6 49.2 42.9 39.5 38.9Electrical installation 5.4 8.1 9.0 10.0 10.2Insulation 3.2 4.1 4.4 4.2 4.5Manual roofing work and piping 10.6 11.3 12.5 14.3 14.2Metal-working (métallerie) 4.5 5.1 6.7 6.4 6.6Hand painting 9.1 9.8 10.8 10.6 10.9Wood working 7.9 10.1 10.4 10.8 10.9Completion of interiors (Aménagements) 1.2 2.3 2.3 2.7 2.8Other 3.5 2.3 1.0 2.5 2.4Total 100 100 100 100 100Source: FFB 2005To counter the latent labour shortage enterprises have sought to develop the followingstrategies: increasing wages 8 ; activating family networks of their workers; granting bonuses totheir employees for recruiting workers; campaigns for recruiting young women; recurring totemporary employment agencies (EUROSTAF 2000: 29). One of the causes for the recourseto undeclared labour can be sought in the limitation of these strategies. It has to be taken intoaccount, however, that in 2005 half of all enterprises with recruitment difficulties requiredqualified workers or 17% engineers and masters (Ministère des Transports, de l'Equipement,du Tourisme et de la Mer, 2005). A simple complementarity between the supply of irregularlabour (see 4.2) and the demand can therefore not be assumed. Recruitment of poorlyqualified workforces was a problem for only 10% of enterprises questioned.4.2. Functioning of the Informal Labour MarketDue to the lack of recent studies on the subject, the following exposition is largely based onthe interviews, which had to be carried out within the frame of this report. The statementsmade are to be regarded rather as hints to be verified and interpreted in further stages of workby players in the field, than as established facts. Due to its by definition illegal nature, thegeneral difficulty in understanding the phenomenon was also reflected in the interviews. For athorough empirical understanding further conversations, above all with the originatorsinvolved in these practices (clients, entrepreneurs, workers), would be necessary, which wasnot feasible within the restricted time available and material resources for the project.Although not comprehensible on the basis of the present data, according to observations bythe DILTI and also the FNTP, public construction activity is less affected by undeclaredemployment practices (if not even excluded) than the area of private construction services. Asthe interlocutor of the FNTP notes, one may have to do here primarily with formalenterprises, which have part of their work carried out by undeclared labour or foreignerswithout a work permit. With regard to the reasons for the lesser incidence in the public sectorone can only speculate. The stronger dependency on public orders would be a possibleexplanation, if one realises, that the public authorities are confronted with the task of settingan example in questions of maintaining the law and are indirectly dependent on theelectorate’s mandate.8 According to the Ministry of Labour wages for workers in construction increased by 29.8% between 1998 and2005. The transsectoral average wage increase amounted to 25.5% in the same period. Wage increases inconstruction have since been slightly above average.20
European Institute for Construction Labour Research – Country Report FranceCLRThe assumption of a concentration of undeclared labour in private building services coincideswith the view of the Paris Labour inspectorate. According to the interviewee, it is found firstand foremost in secondary contract work; the proportion of small enterprises is particularlyhigh and thought to contribute to the phenomenon. Also particularly affected is bricklayers’work and plumbing, since here the qualifications required are not as high as for instance forelectrician’s work. Sionneau (2000: 5) points in a similar direction. According to him, threequarters of the “moonlighting” occurred in the area of house building. Secondary contractwork in the private house building sector and renovation work were particularly affected. Apoint in question is the role of the private demand for cheap labour in the current privateconstruction and renovation boom in French construction. Due to legal constraints, thedifficulty for labour inspectors to monitor these activities (controls in private households) andthe size of certain sites unquestionably facilitates the use of undeclared labour in a sense thatits agents do not have to take too many risks.It is unanimously reported that the majority of undeclared labour is found in small and thesmallest enterprises with less than 10 employees. This is true in particular for the use ofconcealed labour. According to the experience of the Labour Inspector, as a rule the largerenterprises adhered to current regulations. When violations of the law are to be noted in largecompanies, these are against current provisions regarding overtime. However, on theconstruction sites employees of such firms were hardly to be found. This observation points tothe profound changes in the organisation of the production process over the last twenty years,notably the wide-spread use of outsourcing by large contractors. 6 These have concentratedincreasingly on the organisation of the production process (as well as canvassing for clientsand other services) and the externalisation of their own construction activities. The growth ofthe number of small enterprises has to be understood in this context. This developmentcorresponded with new, more flexible (and precarious) forms of the use of labour – such astemporary agency-work, self-employment, subcontracting or the posting of workers – thatreinforced the segmentation of the labour market. Marie (1997) makes the point that moresophisticated forms of undeclared labour have developed at the margins of these forms.Indeed, FNTP and FFB currently see in two of them – the transnational provision of servicesand the sub-contracting chains – the decisive source of undeclared labour.All interviewees reported that forms of undeclared labour regularly occur in transnationallyoperating posting companies. The number of transnationally active enterprises or (bogus) selfemployedhas significantly increased since the eastern expansion of the EU, among otherthings since France, contrary to Austria or Germany, has not imposed industry specific specialregulations for the freedom to provide services. The recent increase in posting activity isperceptible also in comparison to the results presented in a previous study in the sector(Cremers and Donders 2004). According to the FNTP, the border-regions in particular, butalso the heart of the country, are a target for brief use of foreign enterprises. According toDILTI’s information the predominantly East European construction companies offer theirservices on special Internet pages, whereby the prices quoted often imply the circumventionof the French social minimum provisions applicable. According to the FNTP, the minimum6 It has been noted that in order to deal with the endemic problem of the “variability” of the construction process(changing weather and geological conditions; moving sites; strong position of the client), enterprises areconfronted with a dilemma: They need to provide production capacities (labour and machines) without knowingwhen and for which site they will be contracted. Enterprises have two principal choices to deal with this: Eitherthey internalise the risk by hiring qualified workers who are capable of coping with a variability of production;or they externalise the risk, as large construction companies have decided to do (cf. Campinos-Dubernet 1986).21
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Country report France - Construction Labour Research

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