The Evolution of IR/HRM in France

Table 1

Yonatan Reshef
Faculty of Business
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
T6G 2R6 CANADA

Major labor federations and employer organizations

1. CGT- Confédération générale du travail is a Communist labor federation. It was formed in 1895. General strategy: defending workers within the capitalist system while espousing the overthrow of capitalism
2. CFTC - Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens was founded in 1919. It maintains a close philosophical connection to the Catholic Church.
3. CFDT - Confédération française démocratique du travail was founded in 1964 as a result of a split within CFTC. CFDT does not have any ties with the church.
4. FO - Force ouvrière was founded in 1948 as non-communist members broke away from the CGT that strongly opposed the Marshall Plan. Members are largely white-collar workers in the civil service.
5. CGC - The confédération générale des cadres was formed in 1944. It represents the elite class of white-collared workers. This is a moderate union, one which avoids mixing politics with the function of the union. In 1981 it changed its name to CGC-CGE, Confédération française de l'encadrement-confédération général des cadres.  It comprises management staff, supervisors, and technicians.
6. The above five unions are known as "representative unions." FEN (Fédération de l'éducation nationale) is another important union which is also representative but only on a sectoral level, the education sector.
7. CNPF - the Conseil national du patronat français is the central employers' organization. It was formed in December 1945. In October 1998, the organization changed it name to Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF), the Movement of French Enterprises.
   

Weak unions

Plural unionism decreases the potential strength of organized labor; IR/HRM are not highly institutionalized; multiple unions competing for members in the same workplace creates difficulty in collective bargaining as agreements are often signed by unions that represent a small section of the work force. (See more)

Slow development of IR/HRM

7 June, 1936 - the Matignon agreement (Background):

1. 40-hour work week
2. paid holidays
3. a public works program
4. old aged pension
5. the right to conclude collective agreements
6. employee representatives at the plant level in plants >10 employees

1945 - Works council are mandatory in firms with more than 50 workers,

February 11, 1950 - Basic Law (made industry negotiations the backbone of the CB system).  Where sector agreements existed, lower-level bargaining could only take place in special circumstances, that is to take account of particular company characteristics.  Where no sector agreements existed, lower-level bargaining was limited to the fixing of pay rates.

1968 - The Grenelle Agreement. First official recognition of trade union branches within a firm. France's main unions got the right to appoint union delegates in all firms with at least 50 workers.

June 30, 1971 - The new law permitted employers and unions to negotiate agreements at the company level (previously limited to fixing pay rates).

1982 - The Auroux Laws. An attempt to strengthen company-level collective bargaining.

Managers

Main responsibility is supervisory role

Highly skilled

Direct tasks of workers

Patron -- Traditional name for the employer, as the person who wields authority or hierarchical power. By extension, a hierarchical superior to whom an employee is directly answerable. The most appropriate colloquial translation is "boss".

Patronat -- Term used in French for "employers" collectively

Cadre -- Term which has acquired official recognition in France only since 1945, with the introduction of special regulations for this category of employees, and in particular a retirement scheme. Its definition nonetheless remains uncertain, since it requires the combination of two elements which are themselves uncertain. The first is professional worth, which may be assessed either in terms of training and formal qualifications (in which case an individual is described as a "cadre par titre"), or on the basis of accumulated experience. This dual criterion explains, to a large extent, why the category is so widely established. The second element is the possession of authority over subordinates, exercised by delegation from the employer; the threshold that must be crossed in order to gain classification in the category may be set at numerous different levels.

A body of special rules for such professional and managerial staff has gradually been instituted. For instance, they are entitled to a period of at least three months' notice in the event of dismissal and to a higher level of severance pay. They are liable for any infringements committed in the department over which they exercise delegated powers of authority. Their contracts of employment often contain special clauses: long probationary period , covenant in restraint of competition. Collective agreements usually devote a special annex to professional and managerial staff. In workplace-level elections, they constitute a separate electoral body and elect their own delegates. They also elect members of Industrial Tribunals, who, together with the members elected by employers, form part of the staffing within the system of first-instance labour courts. They have their own unions, which are affiliated either to the general trade union confederations or to a special confederation (see CGC-CFE ).

Workers

Low level of autonomy

Training methods don't provide tools for change responsive laborers

Industries have tall organizational structure and narrow span of control