Bargaining and Social Dialogue in the Public Sector (BARSOP): Country Report France

The present BARSOP report includes the results of the case study on France, which analyses how social dialogue in the public sector has changed during the last 15 years, how social dialogue and social partners initiatives have impacted on public sector reforms and how the reforms have impacted on the quantity and quality of jobs and on public services in the sub-sectors of primary education, hospitals and local authorities.
Multiple factors are needed to explain the changes described in the report. New public management NPM-ideologies could be seen as a driver. Moreover, the economic crisis has made the public employers more powerful. The crisis has also impacted through austerity policies and other reforms. The effects from the crisis mix up with the impact of the jointly agreed reform of social dialogue in the public sector, which was implemented in the same period. Also demographic
developments have been of importance and are still perceived as challenging for employment recruitment in the sector.
With regard to the shape public sector reforms have taken, New Public Management (NPM) has been on the agenda in the form of, e.g. contracting out, reduction of employment in the public sector, decentralisation of resources to the local level, contract management and widespread use of targets and new management methods (inspired in the private sector). Although not always succeeding, the social partners have been able to influence some of the reforms via social dialogue and collective bargaining. One main example of successful bargaining is the signing of the joint Bercy agreement reforming the social dialogue system for the public sector in 2008-2010.
Regarding the effect of the reform policies on the quality and quantity of jobs, the austerity policies and other reforms have contributed to the decline in public sector employment, especially until 2012. However, the share of the public sector employment to all employment is still high in comparative terms. Non-standard employment has become more widespread in some sub-sectors, such as primary education. Work intensification seems to be an issue nearly everywhere in the public sector and it is perceived as a serious concern by the social partners, and other workers’ associations.
The last of the projects’ questions regards the impacts of the changes in quantity and quality of jobs on the availability and quality of public services. This question is discussed intensively in all three sub-sectors, but no consensus exists. Research projects and evaluations provide knowledge on the issue, but do not provide clear answers to this important question.
In France, the crisis has resulted in reduced funds for the public sector, in more unilateral action by governments in industrial relations and in changing ideas concerning the role and functions of social partners. Social dialogue has been important in reshaping public sector industrial relations during the crisis even when industrial relations have remained conflictual and unions claim that collective bargaining has become more burdensome.
In France, public sector reforms have intensified during the crisis with clear effects on public budgets and in the number of jobs available in the public sector. The harshest administrative reforms were introduced during the mandate of President Sarkozy, as part of the so-called General Public Policy Review. These NPM ideas have been translated into reform policies for the public sector in France. As public finances remain under pressure with high government
expenditure, since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008, the French administration has taken specific measures to reduce public payrolls. Therefore, employment in public administration has declined during the examined period.
France is characterised by highly adversarial industrial relations and by a trade union movement that is rather strong at the national level but has very little presence on the shop floor. The French trade union model is not one of massive trade union militancy, with unions’ members concentrated in the public sector. However, as in the private sector, unionism in the civil service is characterized by the existence of many different organizations (quite diversified and fragmented
representation). Attending to the peculiarities of the sector, the collective rights for civil servants have been specifically regulated in France and this peculiar status has remained relatively unchanged during the studied period.
The three sub-sectors analysed show similarities on several of the above-mentioned dimensions, special regarding the increase of work-intensification, stagnation of wages, and public employment decline. However, differences are also found, for instance when it comes to the relations between the social partners, the scope, and shape of NPM-reforms, changes in the number of jobs, and the use of non-standard employment.