Following President François Hollande’s announcement on 01 December that he would not be standing as a candidate in the Socialist party’s primary elections, and thus he would not be standing for a second presidential term, the press has been having a field day assessing his five–year term and has not hesitated to point to the lack of progress on the jobs front. However as compared with the past several years this President’s five-year presidential term has been marked by its high volume of reforms. Some unions have criticized these reforms as ‘anti-social’ whilst others have applauded the recognition given to company level negotiation thereby giving unions an opportunity for influence. Employers have accepted the reforms, but begrudgingly because of their price in terms of the compromises required for them to get adopted. For Bruno Dupuis, Senior Associate Advisor at the consultancy firm Alixio, which advises businesses over social strategies, the measures affecting industrial relations give social partners a toolbox and it is up to them to use them.
Somewhat underwhelming in the end, the labor reform was finally adopted on 20 July 2016 (see our article n°9784). There was a marked disparity between the duration and magnitude of the social opposition and the final content of the law reforming the Labor Code. The law, following those of 2004 and 2008 (see our article 080976) also alters the hierarchy of norms over labor law, with Article 2 that accords precedence to company level agreements being at the heart of the opposition camp’s argument
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