Report

Recent developments and debates: Board-level employee representation in France

France is one of 18 EU countries with workers' participation in the supervisory board or the board of directors. Since 2013, moreover, it has also been obligatory in the private sector for companies with more than 1,000 employees in France or 5,000 worldwide. In recent years, the academic, trade union and political debates on workers' participation in France have palpably intensified. Even President Macron promised to extend workers' participation in his election campaign. To date, however, implementation has been limited. The socialists in parliament have introduced a bill that, among other things, envisages parity-based workers' participation in companies of 5,000 employees or more. There is little prospect of implementation given the current composition of parliament. Workers' participation is increasingly discussed not only in the context of economic and social needs, but also in that of environmental sustainability.