France: as the national Climate Law is officially adopted, ecological transition becomes a bona fide topic for social dialogue

On 20 July, the French National Assembly definitively adopted the country’s Climate and Resilience Law (Loi climat et resilience). Despite Senate house opposition, businesses will have to inform and consult their work councils on the ‘environmental consequences of their activity’ and on any measure already subject to consultation under the Labor Code. The Joint Committee has reinstated provisions that had earlier been removed from the first draft of the bill ‘to combat climate change and strengthen resilience to its effects’ that the government submitted to the Council of Ministers in February (c.f. article No.12356). The economic and social database, which groups together all the information that employers must make available to their companies’ works council, now becomes the economic, social and environmental database. The text includes the environmental aspects of the traditional economic and social questions as focus points on which trade union delegates and WC elected members (for companies >50 employees) can also receive training and training leave. In addition, the mission of the public chartered accountant, as requested by the company works council vis-à-vis a company’s strategic direction, will now be able to include a focus on the environmental aspects. Finally, the three-yearly GPEC (forward looking jobs and skills management) negotiations, at sector-level or in companies with more than 300 employees, will also have to respond to the challenges of ecological transition. The government thus wants to enable the anticipation and forestalling of the effect of the ecological transition on jobs and skills in companies.