Further fall in employee reps


New figures from DARES, the research arm of the French Ministry of Labour, show a further fall in the proportion of companies and employees where there is an elected employee representative.


The latest figures, which cover 2020, show that in the private sector, outside agriculture, 41.4% of companies with 10 or more employees had at least one elected representative. 


This is a slight fall on the 41.9% recorded in 2019, but is notably lower than the 44.0% found in 2018. There is a similar trend in larger companies — those with 50 or more employees — although the percentages are higher. 


In 2020, 85.4% of these larger companies had at least one elected representative, down from 87.2% in 2019 and 87.9% in 2018.


The downward trend since 2018 is concerning as it reflects the impact of the legislative changes introduced by the government of president Emmanuel Macron in September 2017. 


Among other things, these merged three previously separate committees representing employees at the workplace into a single body. 


The unions were deeply hostile to the plans at the time, but the government argued that they would strengthen employee representation at the workplace. 


The latest figures suggest the opposite has occurred although, because representation is found more frequently in larger workplaces, the proportion of workers with an elected representative is still relatively high.