France: cross-industry negotiations on competitiveness-employment agreements should start soon

Hard for the trade unions to turn this offer down, as doing so would have led to an immediate legislative initiative.  Indeed, Premier François Fillon told the press that, in the absence of a cross-industry agreement “on an appropriate legal framework for the ‘competitiveness-employment’ agreements, we will take our responsibility and present a bill.”  In his letter to the social partners on January 30, he gives them two months to define “the modalities for negotiating, validity and duration” of these agreements which will lay out working conditions and “guarantees to maintain and develop employment” along with them.  The scope of these agreements also needs to be settled because they raise legal concerns.  While such agreements have already been signed in a few businesses, they are still subject to the individual consent of the employees who have to accept the changes to their employment contract resulting from the agreement.