French Unions facing Temporary Agency Work: beyond opposition, a tacit acceptance

François Michon fmichon@univ-paris1.fr

CNRS (Centre d’Économie de la Sorbonne) & Institut de Recherches Économiques et Sociales

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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1 - Introduction

  Temporary Agency Work (TAW) and other temporary contracts in France

  Weakness and strength of French unions

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

1-1 Temporary Agency Work (TAW) and other temporary contracts in France

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

1-2 the paradoxical situation of French unions

  a very low rate of unionization < 8% of the total labour force

  the TAW sector < 1%

  a high coverage by collective agreements ± 80%  an intensive collective bargaining for TAW regulation

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

2 – TAW in France

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

Agency Work penetration rate (%, 2006)

Sale Revenues (billions €, 2006)

France 2,4 20

Germany 1,3 9

Netherlands 2,5 9

UK 4,5 36

Japan 1,9 25

USA 2,0 87 source : CIETT, The agency world industry around the world, 2007 edition

(TAW in France)

  2-1 the agency side : a highly concentrated sector

  2-2 the worker side : young males, blue collars, unskilled; but a dynamic of generalization

July 2008 François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

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2-1 Agency side: a highly concentrated sector

1996 2006

USA 6 200 6 000

UK 5 000 10 500

Japon 9 000 30 600

France 850 1 200

Allemagne 5 058 2 500

Pays Bas 400 2 100

Number of Temporary Work Agencies (1996-2006) (source CIETT)

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

  1997: the10 bigger firms = 71% or the total revenue of the business

  2004:   the 4 first (ADECCO, Manpower, Vedior-Bis et ADIA) = :

71% of the total revenue   the 2 first ADECCO et Manpower = 46 % of the total

revenue

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

source SETT

2-2 TAW: Young males, blue collars, unskilled.

1995 2006 Men

75,3 72,4 Women

24,7 27,6 All 100 100

%, full time equivalent, source : DARES, UNEDIC

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

2-2

1995 2006

< 25 y.o 35,2 31,4 25-49 y.o. 60,9 61,6 ≥ 50 3,9 7,0 All 100 100

%, full time equivalent, source : DARES, UNEDIC

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

2-2

1995 2000 2007 managers 0,3 0,9 1,7

intermediates 3,7 5,0 7,2

White Collars 15,8 13,5 12,2

Blue collars skilled 33,5 32,3 40,0

unskilled 46,6 48,3 39,0

All 100 100 100

%, full time equivalent, source : DARES, UNEDIC

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

2-3 TAW user sectors

2000 2006

Industry 7,1 7,0 Food industry 6,3 7,0

Car industry 10,9 8,7

Building construction 7,9 8,8

Non industrial sectors

1,5 1,6

All sectors 3,1 3,4

% (100 = all employed of the sector), full time equivalent, source : DARES, UNEDIC

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

Permanent TAWs or underemployed TAWs ?

  average length of assignments : 1,9 weeks (source DARES UNEDIC)

  average accumulated working hours for the year : 7,5 months (source : BVA – FAFtt)

  average number of assignment firms during the year : 2,7 (source : BVA – FAFtt)

 only 9% of TAWs have had 6 or more user firms

  54% of TAWorkers are employed continuously during the year (source : BVA – FAFtt)

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

3- French actors facing TAW’s expansion

  3-1 The employers organization   3-2 The employers aims   3-3 The unions organization   3-4 The unions aims   3-5 Collective bargaining on TAW issues   3-6 The recent national collective bargaining on

labour market reform

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

3-1 the employers organization

  The employer association is PRISME   50 % of firms do not belong to PRISME

  these 50% represent only 10% of the total revenue of the sector

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

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3-2 Employers strategies (PRISME strategies)

  the permanent aims:   to be respectable: a « good » social welfare to TAWs   to have permanent dealings: to stabilize their

relationships to user firms and to their labour reserve.   to enlarge the TAW market: new skills, occupations,

sectors

  the recent strategies: from temporary work agencies to employment agencies.   to gain new business:   to be the first private intermediate on the labour

market IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

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3-3 unions organisation

  how to organize TAWs: unionization within the agency or within the user firm   the permanent hesitation of French unions

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

3-4 unions objectives

  the TAW issues do not appear to have priority   the struggle against precariousness is much more

important

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

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3-5 collective bargaining on TAW issues

  1972 : the first law reproduced an agreement Manpower – CGT

  Many sector-wide agreements supplemented the legislative framework : FAF-tt, FPE-tt, FAS-tt, welfare and pension schemes

  the September 2005 sector-wide agreement implemented the January 2005 social cohesion law

  today: Agencies as umbrella companies, legislator is currently debating to translate the January 2008 agreement into the labour law

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

3-6 the recent national collective bargaining on labour market reform (January 2008)

  no unique labour contract   generalisation of the initial testing period   the break off of contracts with individual

agreements   the new « contrat de mission » (« project contract »)

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES

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4- Conclusion: beyond the opposition, differentiations

  lack of dynamism of unions on TAW issues   a general opposition to precariousness

 but TAW is not the more precarious   there are other urgencies

  differentiations  between acceptable use, excessive use of TAW  between confederations (CGT CFDT)  between confederations and their local unions

IWPLMS, 29th conference, July 2008, Porto

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François Michon CNRS (CES) & IRES