Labor Days

There are two types of members, titular CSE members and alternates. Titular members participate in CSE meetings including by voting, and they have special non-dismissal rights. Alternates are nonvoting observers, with the option to temporarily backfill titular members as needed.

Unlike trade unions in America which are tied to a specific profession, CSE membership is by company: the French office of Acme, Inc. has an Acme CSE. That being said, trade unions also exist, and an individual could be a member of both a trade union (via their profession) and a CSE (via their employment).

What might be surprising is that even "non-IC's" such as managers are represented by the CSE. Membership in the organization is mandatory, with CSE contributions being part of compensation. This is very different from our expectations in America, where a typical contract negotiation is between "management" and "labor"; in France, even if you're a manager (« cadre »), as long as your work contract is with the France legal entity then you're still an employee of the company and you're still entitled to worker protections and representation.

In practice, the company leadership is required to meet with the CSE on a regular basis (monthly or bimonthly depending on company size) to address any questions or issues on behalf of workers. If the company has a Health & Safety Committee (CSSCT) it must meet at least 4 times per year. Separately, the CSE and/or the employer may call an extraordinary meeting in case of serious issues such as a workplace injury or company restructuring.

The goal of these meetings is to ensure that workers are "consulted" (this is a specific legal term) regarding company initiatives.

CSE meetings have a preset agenda agreed by management and the CSE secretary that must be distributed to the CSE meeting at least 72 hours before the meeting (otherwise the meeting is invalid and the CSE is not legally considered to have been "consulted" on the agenda items). The meeting is closed-door but minutes are distributed both to leadership and employees.

From the company's side, "leadership" generally consists of the GM and the HR lead, plus any managers who are responsible for projects or initiatives on the agenda. That being said, there may be a limit on the number of cadres who are allowed to be physically present in the room during a CSE meeting. In this case, leadership is allowed to solicit information from relevant managers to bolster their position. 

From the employee's side, participants consist of the CSE members plus any domain experts hired by the CSE (at the company's expense) to provide their expertise on behalf of the employees' position.

For example, if your company is moving offices, this would be an initiative that legally requires the consultation and approval of the CSE. In that case, the Facilities & Real Estate leader responsible for the move would likely need to participate in the relevant CSE meeting. If they are consultant or non-FTE, they can participate as a guest of leadership with no issues. However if they are technically a manager employed by the company, and there are already too many cadres in the CSE meeting room, then instead of physically presenting, the F&RE lead could prepare a presentation or document addressing the relevant agenda items at the request of the GM.

It's important to note that these meetings are not necessarily adversarial. It's normal for any project to solicit stakeholder input; the CSE is the mechanism to accomplish this with the company's workers, especially during challenging moments such as poor financial performance, headcount reductions, and restructuring. CSE approval is just one part of project management, albeit one with specific legal and procedural requirements. While private-sector workers do have the right to go on strike, ideally the underlying issues can be resolved by the CSE before that happens.

In addition to its main role to negotiate on behalf of workers, the CSE also is able to offer benefits to employees. For example, company CSE's have been known to provide:

• Discounted tickets to theme parks (for example you pay the CSE 100€ and receive 200€ of tickets to Disney World)

• Discounted cheques vacances

• Holiday gift certificates (cheques cadeaux)

• Colonies Vacances (basically a 2-week summer camp for children of employees)

Despite the stereotype of French workers "always going on strike" in fact the majority of strikes are either political demonstrations unrelated to a specific company, or unions of public-sector employees such as the transportation sector. For private-sector employees, while they do have the right to go on strike there is a comprehensive body of labor law in France that enables companies and employees to resolve issues procedurally via the workers council (CSE). If you are managing the France operations of an American multinational it is unlikely your workers will go on strike unless something has gone wrong with this process.

That being said, if you are working in France under a local contract, even as a manager, then you also benefit from having a CSE; both in terms of protections accorded to you as an employee, and also potential non-salary compensation.

For more information about works councils, see the appendix.

For more insights about doing business in France, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Au revoir !

• High-level explanation of works councils from the French government: link

• Explainer from the French government for the right of employees to go on strike, and the associated rules and regulations: link

• Explainer from the French government of regulations surrounding "consultation" with the CSE: link