Collective bargaining in France

Abstract

The analysis of collective bargaining in France suggests the existence of an independent model that combines several characteristics: the plurality of participants, multiple levels, no a priori determination of the objects of negotiation, the fundamental role of the State in ensuring, stimulating and orienting its content, the persistent link with conflicts in companies. In spite of the progress made and the major changes undergone in the processes and in the stakes of negotiation, this negotiation has neither the autonomy, nor the authority which exists in numerous European countries. This model also includes a whole legal structure meant to reduce the contradictions and tensions generated by the diversity of the sources of regulation: notions of public social order, of a hierarchy of procedure, of “principles of favour” or of revocation under certain conditions. This construction is uncertain, contingent, sometimes contradictory and has difficulty channelling and maintaining order in the multiplicity of negotiating practices. It is also recommendable to stress the importance of the devices that institutionalize collective bargaining and provide the rules involved in the negotiations with a certain consistency and stability.