Documents found
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111.More information
Four years after the adoption of the Auroux laws, the author evaluates the legislation's practical consequences in the areas of collective bargaining and time allocation.The 1982 law on collective bargaining was aimed at stimulating such activities at the industry and above all the firm level, particularly regarding salaries and work time. The law was adopted, though, before government wage and price controls had come to an end.On the salary question, it appears that the legislation did not stimulate collective bargaining on a sectorial level. These negotiations were complète and salary riders concluded, the established pattern set in — in conformity with government and management recommendations. Within the firm, where the legislation created an obligation for the employer to negotiate real salaries, an obvious development is noticeable. Firm-level negotiations, however, only made minor adjustments to sectorial agreements. As regards time allocation and time reduction, sectorial agreements determined the form and results of the hours of work. It is in the area of firm-level collective bargaining that new approaches appeared most clearly. Nevertheless, it should be noted that agreements were so firm specifie that is probable that they could have been reached without reference to the legislation. Thus, collective agreements have evolved since 1982 in a framework clearly defined by the objectives and the recommendations of the government. The legislation certainly contributed to the development of collective bargaining, particularly at the firm-level. It did not create a power of negociation sufficient to validate agreements aimed at upgrading salary conditions to levels acceptable to central government bodies, as far as unions were concerned. Underlying these remarks, of course, are the economic context and union crisis felt in France as elsewhere. Concerning negotiations on time allocation and time reduction, they revealed an offensive strategy by firms preoccupied with creating a more flexible organization as regards work time and production. The legislation proposed certain formulas accepted by firms, but it was not the legislation requiring negotiation which was at the root of what happened — it was the strategy of the firms themselves. Moreover, it is probably this very strategy which is the most significant factor in the development of French industrial relations, making it possible, for example, to profit from the requirements of the legislation — turning a restraint into an advantage.
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112.More information
systematic planning, even though flexible and indicative, is frequently considered as one of the decisive elements of a « socializing » economical policy. The French experience may be given as an example of the contrary.Modem economies are large scale economies where the private enterprise is the prevalent means of production. One cannot explain concentration only by the search of power and profit but also by the requirements of a mass production whose place is only in a large market. These modem economies are also integrated economies : development requires the harmonization of programs and projects between the predominant enterprises and also necessitates proper measures to reduce tensions brought by the development itself. In front of the growing power of oligopolies and of the political administrative influence, the counterpowers, as the labor unions or the consumers' organizations, have a limited efficiency.These are the important issues which lead to a further investigation of the impact of systematic planning. Does it break into the power of the private enterprise ? To what extent does it transform the structures and the operation of the economy ? To what extent does the debate on organized planning and participation of economic agents in the elaboration of the « plan » bring a renewal of the socio-economic attitudes and strategies on the social front? A reflexion, even shallow, on the French experience should allow us to bring an answer to these questions.In the present phase, the Fifth French « plan » far from doubting of the logic of a capitalist economy, is a deliberate factor of concentration and modernization. The « plan » tends to prepare the French economy to face the challenge brought by its integration in the Common Market. But paradoxically, the coming complete fusion of the economies of the six countries, members of the European Economic Community, added to the establishment of common policies limit the scope of the national « plan ».It seems that the French « plan » fulfills a triple positive function :a ) As a source of information and economic forecast the « plan » guarantees more coherence to the governmental directives and especially to the entrepreneur's decisions. This information widely broadcasted allows everyone to acknowledge the conditions of economical progress, its exigencies and its necessities. Information is the necessary condition of a « concerted economy » defined in the following terms by Mr. François Bloch Laine :« Un régime dans lequel les représentants de l'Etat (ou des collectivités secondaires) et ceux des entreprises (quel que soit le statut de celles-ci) se réuniront de façon organisée pour échanger leurs informations, pour confronter leurs prévisions et pour ensemble tantôt prendre des décisions, tantôt formuler des avis à l'intention du gouvernement. »b) The « plan », as a corrective, tends to reduce the tensions inevitably brought by the economic development. The policy of land development tends to slow down and, if possible, to reduce the interregional disparities and disequilibrium. It is based on many different measures, going from an administrative reform to many governmental intervention in the fiscal field... without leaving aside the contribution of the state in the financing of the infrastructural development conducive to the emergence of bringing new enterprises in the lagging areas.But, it is in the agricultural sector that the changes are the biggest. In the Common Market, the French agriculture, in order to face the active competition, must move into specialization and revamp its cultivation methods. In the present role, the « plan » seeks a more satisfying equilibrium between individual and collective consumptions, equilibrium broken by the spontaneity of the market which tends to privilege the kind of consumption susceptible to realize more profits.c ) As the Stake of a collective debate, the « plan » leads to the confrontation of the economic agents' projects, attitudes, and desires to the extend to which the development depends upon their accounts. The « plan » tends to institutionalize practices and a type of group relationship that, without looking for a consensus, allows them to have a better idea of the stake and of the consequences of the conflicts that could divide them.
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113.More information
SummaryThe permanent contract of employment is now under challenge in the context of the network economy. Hitherto, in an era of industrial manufacturing when companies were organized like hierarchies, the permanent contract of employment, was the prevalent method of regulating labour relations. In an effort to concentrating on their core business, companies now prefer other forms of mobilizing work, replacing the contract of employment with contracts in civil or commercial law, as in the cases of subcontracting and franchising. Even if the work performed may in fact remain exactly the same, the legal norms governing these relationships are completely different. While labour law has been created to compensate the economic imbalance between the worker and the employer by a set of norms either defined by public authorities or negotiated by the social partners, civil and commercial law consider that the two parties to a contract are on an equal footing. The two parties are thus able to determine the content of the contract, without any third party having to protect one of them through a precise legal framework, such as that of a labour code. Of course, the workers of subcontractors or franchisees are still formally protected by the national labour law, but these norms become completely ineffective in this new context, because the only person compelled to observe these norms is the subcontractor and not the multinational company that defines the economic strategy for the whole supply chain. In other words, by shifting its organizational structure from a hierarchy to a network, a company manages to maintain an economic control over the global supply chain without being, from a legal point of view, liable for its social and environmental impact.In this context, any tool that recognizes the company's social responsibility for the global supply chain, such as codes of conduct, social labels or social reporting, are therefore interesting instruments that can usefully complement labour law, which seems to be inadequate to regulate even fundamental social rights in global supply chains. The aim of this article is to analyze more in depth the legal nature of these different tools and their impact on labour law. Will corporate social responsibility (CSR) tools reinforce the crisis of labour law in the era of globalization or will they be part of a solution to this crisis? Do we have to consider codes of conduct, social labels and social reporting as competitors to labour law or as an opportunity for rethinking the way that labour law norms should be produced and applied?First of all, this article argues that CSR tools are not really voluntary. Everybody agrees that these instruments are often adopted to respond to or to prevent pressure from different stakeholder groups, including the increasing influence of socially responsible investment. At least from an economic point of view, CSR tools can therefore not seriously be considered as a form of voluntary regulation. But even from a legal point of view, CSR tools are not purely voluntary. For example, an analysis of law in the Member States of the European Union shows that there is an increasingly precise legal framework, which gives companies incentives to behave in a socially responsible fashion, for example by adopting codes of conduct, and to report on this in a transparent manner. These incentives are addressed either to investment funds, which subsequently exert financial pressure on companies, or directly to companies. What is even more important is that if a company decides to adopt a CSR strategy, its commitment has a legal character whenever it is sufficiently precise and public. As recognized in May 2002 by the Supreme Court of California, the non-respect by a supplier of a company's commitment in the field of social responsibility may be considered as a case of misleading advertisement.From this point of view, CSR tools cannot be considered as a danger for labour law, they are rather an opportunity for renewal. Nevertheless, a closer look shows that corporate social responsibility in general may modify the balance between different branches of law. Indeed, these instruments are the sign of an increasing incursion of commercial and consumer law in the field of labour relations. Firstly, none of the legislation giving incentives to corporate social responsibility is part of labour law; it is commercial law. Secondly, the concepts of boycotts and misleading advertisement, which play an important role in the implementation of CSR, are those of consumer law.This article argues that this shift from labour law to consumer law is not neutral and has more than a purely theoretical impact. It means that the existing law is more likely to protect consumers (in Europe or North-America) than workers (in developing countries). It also may lead to conflicts of interest between the company's different stakeholders, and especially between workers and consumers. Finally, it can result in the increasingly selective character of labour regulation, since consumer pressure only concerns some companies and some social rights, while neglecting others.
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116.More information
This article seeks to analyse the connection between the European Employment Strategy (EES) and the Social Dialogue. The main hypothesis is that there is a strong interaction between the establishment of the EES beginning in 1997 and the reinforcement of the Social Dialogue. On the one hand, the Social Dialogue served the needs of the EES and on the other the EES became a tool for transforming the Social Dialogue. This research emphasises the changes in the role assigned to the social partners in the European Social Strategy.
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117.More information
ABSTRACTOver the past fifteen years, a model of women's labour force participation has been reinforced, based on the declining social value of domestic work and the substitution of paid work as the preferred means of social integration. The norm of continuous paid employment has been imposed on most women in France. But the progress of this model has been hindered by job shortages during a period of crisis in employment. Paradoxically, while women have benefited from rare cases of job creation since the 1980s, their situation has not significantly improved; on the contrary, new gaps have replaced old divisions. Women are especially affected by unemployment and precariousness in employment status and working conditions. Part-time work is one of the instruments of this precariousness, at the intersection of company policies of flexibility and public action against unemployment and exclusion. The policy of job sharing, despite its commendable aims, is helping to accentuate gaps not only between men and women, but also among women.
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118.More information
ABSTRACTThis overview stresses the marginal position of studies on aging in the context of work and employment, despite the central role of work in advanced industrial societies and the major impact of working conditions and prior work histories on life during retirement. Because the sphere of old age and aging has been defined on the basis of age criteria and criteria for exclusion from the labour market, the role of work and employment as factors structuring the aging process has been overshadowed. There are relatively few studies on this subject, although their number has increased in the past decade. This research can be grouped into three main categories, according to the focus of study: 1) analyses of statistics on the labour force, 2) studies on corporate policies and practices and their effects on an aging labour force, and 3) studies on various categories of older male and female workers. In conclusion, the relative lack of influence of these research studies on the social actors involved is attributed to the state's low level of intervention in economic activity and the activities of private enterprise.
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119.More information
SummaryThis paper asks the question of trade-union influence on the evolution of forms of work organization. In France, there is notradition in this regard, as unions have never really become involved in the matter. Transformations in firms taking place atthe present time, changes in negotiation techniques, the urgency of new social questions such as employment could result inbringing this issue to the fore. It appears that work organization is not really being modernized in its principles, but still hearkensback mainly to the logic of Taylorism. As for trade unions, weakened more and more by a troubling de-unionization,more and more divided (with the appearance of new unions) and marginalized, they do not seem to be capable of coming toterms with the important and complex issue of work organization.
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120.More information
SummaryOn the basis of a critique of the thesis of Braverman on the dequalification of work and an analysis of recent debates on the issue, this paper sets out to contribute to the rethinking of the notion of work qualification. To do this, the authors examine the evolution in qualifications for administrative jobs in the educational sector in Quebec. Going beyond an analysis of the evolution in work organization, they attempt an analysis of the evolution of the content of automated work. The observation of a problem related to the non-recognition of new qualifications brings them to conclude with the social and conflictual character of the notion of qualification.