An imperative for harmonizing social dialogue following Solvay’s purchase of Rhodia, the majority agreement signed on 31 May between management at the chemicals group and the union bodies CFDT and CFE-CGC is also applying the Rebsamen law that allows company level negotiations to define the architecture of employee representation. The agreement puts a single social consultation body, the central company works council, in place at national (France) level. The agreement also intends for a single body in the company’s smaller sites and administrative centers. In its industrial and research units employee delegates and health and safety committee delegates will merge and the health and safety prerogatives of the new body will be strengthened. The agreement also contains a significant section on unions with the company financing part of union membership as well as officially recognizing employee representatives’ union track records in a bid to attract “employees who may have hitherto hesitated to commit to such tasks” the company’s press statement explained.
The agreement signed on 31 May between Solvay and the union bodies, CFDT and CFE-CGC (the CGT did not sign) contains seventy pages but can be distilled into two major themes. Firstly, more efficient employee representation that is more in line with how the new group is configured, and secondly, a desire to encourage employees take up representative roles. “The fact that the existing relevant agreements terminated in February was the prerequisite for us going back to the drawing board,” indicate
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