After Industrial Relations Reform: French Unions Coping with the Loss of Decentralized Works Council Structures

Since the 1980s, a succession of industrial relations reform has aimed at decentralising the French industrial relations system. The 2017 “Macron ordinances” represent the lastest major reform. Amongst other things, it aims at facilitating works council information and consultation procedures by profoundly altering its institutional design. The merger of the three elected representation bodies into a single body works council (Comité social et économique, CSE) and the reduction of the number of representatives are instrumental to this. However, slashing the dedicated establishment (CHSCT) and shopfloor-level (DP) representation bodies has deprived the works council system of its decentralized levels in charge of the representation of “everyday” job and work-related concerns.

Taking cues from the sociology of worker representation and the literature on works councils as multi-level institutions, this contribution aims at identifying and comparing the coping strategies deployed by company union representatives to fill the representational void at decentralized levels. What are their goals? What are their effects? Are they effective in replacing the former institutional structures? To answer these questions, we build on data collected in a study on the implementation and functioning of the CSE, comprising eight company case studies, content analysis of 12 company agreements as well as interviews with CSE-affiliated experts. Our findings allow us to distinguish four emerging strategies dealing with institutional change that are not mutually exclusive. We argue that the occurrence of such strategies is indicative of an ongoing structural change within the works council system, i.e., a tendency towards permanent negotiated adaptation of its regulatory frame and a shift in balance from the elected to the trade union channel.