Country report France - Construction Labour Research

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European Institute for Construction Labour Research – Country Report FranceCLR1. National Regulatory System Relevant for the Construction Industry1.1. Statutory and Collective Regulation of Labour RelationsFrench labour law is drawn up on four levels, whereby the requirements of the Labour Codeare attributed the greatest importance. In addition, in some areas there are interprofessionalcollective agreements, which assume a statutory nature. Examples of this are the conventionsfor professional training. At a third level there are the sectoral agreements to be concluded bythe trade unions and employers’ federations. Among other things it is prescribed by law thatthe sectoral negotiations are to be carried on at regular intervals. Wage bargaining forexample is to be conducted annually. Also at company level collective agreements may beconcluded. Here the labour code also prescribes intervals between negotiations (among otherthings regarding wages), provided there are trade union delegates in the company. The orderof precedence for regulations in the labour code provided that sectoral collective agreementshave to be more favourable than the statutory regulations, and the plant agreement morefavourable than the sectoral collective agreement. The great influence of the State on thecollective regulation of labour relations, particularly if compared to the voluntaristic Anglo-Saxon tradition of free collective bargaining, is apparent in its role as initiator and moderatorin collective bargaining as well as in the frequent application of the generally bindingdeclaration of collective agreements.The role of the Labour Code is further strengthened by the low level of trade union andemployers’ organisation. This is below 10% industry-wide on the trade union side (Courtoisand Labbé 2001) as well as about 5% in the construction industry (Druker and Dupré 1998).In construction, to a large extent characterised by SME’s, trade union membership ispredominantly concentrated in large and medium companies. The ideological trade union splitin a number of interprofessional umbrella organisations is also worth noticing. Trade unionswith the strongest membership in construction are members of the CFDT (Confédérationfrançaise démocratique du travail) and CGT (Confédération générale du travail). Socialdialogue is restricted to wage negotiations and the joint management of social funds.The structure of the construction collective agreement system is characterized by a divisioninto public works on the one hand (contractors that carry out infrastructure and other publicworks, for instance railway tracks and highway construction, tunnels and drains) and privateconstruction on the other. For both sectors independent wage negotiations are conductedannually with three employers’ associations, which are independent of each other (FNTP,FFB and Capeb). This does not exclude that agreements of the contractual partners showfundamental similarities since the industry federations on the trade union side haveconsciously not accepted any analogous organisational split.In private construction and public works, there are three national collective agreements (bluecollarworkers; administrative/technical employees; managerial and staff workers). For bluecollarworkers and administrative/technical employees wages are negotiated regionally (andthen declared generally binding). For the managerial and staff workers wages are negotiatedat national level. For workers in private construction there are two - generally binding -national collective agreements, one for employees in enterprises with less, and another forenterprises with more than 10 employeesWages are negotiated at the level of the 22 regions by the decentralized structures of theemployer’s federations and trade unions. In all, every year 88 wage negotiations take place for2
European Institute for Construction Labour Research – Country Report FranceCLRconstruction workers. Nonetheless, the power of these agreements to spread also to nonorganizedcompanies can be assumed. In line with the statutory regulations of 1998 and 2000,generally binding regulations on working time (the so-called Aubry-Laws I, and II) establish aweekly working time of 35 hours with full compensation (L. 212-1 Code du travail). Thesettlement allows at the same time a weekly working time of 39 hours, in so far as theadditional work is remunerated with overtime bonuses. The yearly overtime quota permittedhad been gradually reduced to 130 hours per year per employee under the socialistGovernment; in 2003 with the so-called Fillon-Law the maximum number of allowedovertime hours had been raised to 180 hours per year. In 2004, the legal contingent wasextended to 220 hours per year. The number of maximum working hours in public works isdetermined by the collective agreement and depends on the firm’s yearly working-time (130,145 or 180 hours). It is possible to set up working time accounts by company agreement.From the 36 th hour overtime bonuses amount to 25%, from the 44 th hour to 50%. Until 31December 2008, overtime bonuses in firms with no more than 20 employees amount to 10%from the 36 th to the 39 th hour. The maximum weekly working time amounts to 48 hours/week(in so far as there is no special permit from the employment authorities), without – inaccordance with the wage agreement – the weekly working time being allowed to exceed 44hours in a period of 6 consecutive months of work. The daily maximum working timeamounts to 10 hours. The advocates of making working time flexible and allowing theextension of the number of overtime hours might understand these legal changes as acontribution to the fight undeclared labour, even if this was not their main purpose. The newworking time regulations complicate the work of the Labour Inspectorate.Finally, social funds are significant for the regulation of labour relations in construction. Bothunder- and non-declaration of labour are of equal concern to them. The first funds in theindustry were introduced by law. Then, since the fifties, the social partners have taken overthe initiative. The following sector-specific social funds are jointly administered: the trainingfund financed by vocational training contributions(CCCA, Comité central de coordination del’apprentissage), the industrial accident prevention fund (OPPBTP, Organisme professionnelde prévention du BTP), the supplementary pension fund BTP-Retraite, the providential fundBTP-Prévoyance (guaranteeing continued pay and additional compulsory health insurance),the further training funds (GFC-BTP/AREF, FAF SAB, OPCA-TP). Only the paid holidayand bad weather compensation fund (Union des caisses de France, Congés-Intempéries BTP)is not jointly administered. Contrary to the industry-wide wage and framework agreements,which have always been contested and never obtained the signature of all trade unions, withregard to social funds a basic consensus of all players was developed. The interest ofemployers in the allocation of employees in sufficient numbers and qualifications in a sectorcharacterized by discontinuous employment and disadvantageous working conditions laid afoundation for the development of social funds in partnership between capital and labour. Notsurprisingly, in international comparisons French labour relations in construction have beendescribed as relatively highly regulated (Campinos-Dubernet et al. 1992), particularly in viewof the significance of generally binding collective agreements and social funds in the industry.1.2. Relevant Provisions in Taxation, Social and Labour LawAlthough in French labour law there is no definition of an employee, case law assumes theexistence of a contractual employment relationship if the following three components apply:performing labour for a third person; remuneration; a tie of subordination. Self-employment isassumed if the person performing the work is registered in the adequate registers (Trade andCompany Register, Professional Register, URSSAF) and his/her activity corresponds to the3
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Country report France - Construction Labour Research

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