Flexicurity à la française?Navigating labour market policy

in difficult timesSusan Milner

University of BathSheffield Business School, UACES workshop, 28

May 2015

Flexicurity in the French context

• A ‘spent’ concept? Divisive; weak credibility after 2008

• High salience• (Apparent) congruence with twin processes of

employer-led national-level bargaining (Refondation sociale) and state-driven ‘modernisation of social dialogue’)

• Problem of articulation between levels of dialogue/bargaining

Version I: the Sarkozy initiative• 2008 law (based on social partner agreement) set

the parameters (actor positioning): consensus on portability of employment-based rights (‘making employment secure’)

• But failed to reset the policy direction• Path dependency: incrementalism (new form of

‘probation’ contract rather than reform of existing contracts) and lowest common denominator trade-offs

• 2010 follow-up (tripartite fund): state disinvestment caused distrust

Version II: theSocialist relaunch of social summitry

• 11 January 2013 agreement:portability of accrued occupational benefits; state support for retraining measures; higher taxes on very short contracts; monitoring of redundancy shifted from public authorities to bargainingBUT CGT and FO did not sign

2013 law (LSE): (limited) experiments in local flexicurity

• Agreement toned down on redundancies; but internal mobility clauses retained (no bargaining follow-up identified)

• Portability of health cover currently subject to sectoral & local bargaining; legislation will force employers to provide cover by January 2016

• Unemployment insurance coverage extended (mostly) for those in short-term employment

• Social security coverage for part-time workers: limited impact on bargaining (fast food, cleaning)

• ‘Database’ for union reps (BDES): little impact

2013 law: personal training accounts

• ‘the major social achievement of the Hollande presidency’?

• an individual (portable) right: 150 hours in total

• levy-funded (0.2% of wage bill)• in force since January 2015 but so far no

takers…

Main innovation = ‘competitiveness agreements’

• ‘Employment maintenance contracts’: 10 agreements registered by March 2015 (automotive, engineering, IT), smaller companies (100-200), all unions have signed at least one

• ‘Competitiveness pacts’: 21 agreements (automotive, air transport, metals, shipbuilding, maintenance), larger companies, all unions have signed

• Short-time working: little effect, numbers stable 2013-14, mainly manufacturing, more SMEs

Version III (current): a scattergun (state-led) approach?

• Unfinished business: reforming information, consultation and dialogue mechanisms (June 2015)

• Macron law: picking up earlier ‘competitiveness’ agenda

• National-level tensions (CGT, FO esp.)• Political tensions still around employment

contracts

Overall assessment• Messy process of adjustment: union demands taken

forward (logic of portability of rights, or rights-based employability) but subject to procedural ‘drag’

• Path dependency• Failure of trust-building and consensus-building• Heavy contingency (economic and political) rather

than political agency or policy design• Lack of articulation between levels still a structural

constraint (little impetus for sectoral or local bargaining)