Collective agreements in the public service: what are they?

Verified 04 June 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Since 9 July 2021, employers' administrations and trade unions can conclude collective agreements.

A collective agreement is a negotiated text between the employer’s administration and the trade unions. The two parties agree to the establishment of provisions that apply to the employees of the employer’s administration that is a signatory to the agreement.

The collective agreement may be concluded at national, local or local level.

On the side of employer administrations

The collective agreement may concern the three public services (State, territorial, hospital) or a single public service or a ministerial department or a decentralized service of the State or a territorial authority or a public hospital establishment.

Negotiations on the three public services are being undertaken at the national level and involve government representatives, including the Minister responsible for the Public Service, representatives of territorial employers and representatives of hospital employers.

Negotiations on a single civil service are initiated at national level, under the leadership of the Government, and involve representatives of the civil service concerned.

Negotiations for a ministerial department shall be conducted by the minister concerned.

At the various levels of proximity, negotiations can be conducted, in the State civil service, for example by the prefect or by a director at a regional or interregional level (rector of academy, for example).

In the territorial and hospital public services, negotiations are conducted by the territorial authority or head of establishment.

On the side of trade unions

At national level, representative trade union organizations are those which have at least 1 seat on the Joint Council of the Civil Service or on the Higher Councils of the State, territorial or hospital civil service.

At local or local level, representative trade union organizations shall be those which have at least one seat on the social committees.

FYI  

For local and regional authorities and their public establishments without a social committee, the social committee of reference shall be that of the management center.

Changes in earnings (in particular the value of the index point) may be the subject of collective agreements exclusively at national level.

The following areas may be covered by collective agreements at national, local or local level :

  • Conditions and organization of work (prevention measures in the fields of health, safety and health at work in particular)
  • Working time, telework, quality of life at work, conditions for moving between home and work, impacts of digitalization on organization and working conditions
  • Social support for measures to reorganize services
  • Implementation of actions to combat climate change, preserve resources and the environment and ensure the social responsibility of organizations
  • Professional equality between women and men
  • Promotion of equal opportunities and recognition of diversity, prevention of discrimination in access to employment and career management
  • Vocational integration, job retention and career development of disabled people
  • Career development and career development
  • Learning
  • Vocational training and continuing training
  • Collective interest and conditions for the implementation of compensation policies
  • Social action
  • Complementary social protection
  • Evolution of the trades and forward management of jobs and skills

An agreement may include regulatory measures.

It may also contain clauses by which the administration undertakes to carry out specific actions which do not require it to take regulatory measures.

Regulatory measures may not relate to rules laid down by decree in the Council of State.

Nor may they alter or contravene rules laid down by decree of the Council of State.

Where an agreement contains clauses the implementation of which involves regulatory measures, the administration shall inform the trade union organizations of the timetable for considering such measures.

Trade unions and public employers may also participate in negotiations in any other field. In this case, the agreements may not contain regulatory measures.

The purpose of an agreement may be to provide for the conditions of application of an agreement already existing at a lower territorial level.

In this case, the implementing agreement can only clarify the initial agreement or improve the general provisions.

It must comply with the essential provisions of the agreement.

An agreement shall contain a timetable for its implementation, possibly its period of validity, and the conditions for a monitoring committee to examine the measures it provides for and their conditions of application.

Prior framework agreements

Of framework agreements may be concluded in order to define the method applicable to negotiations on areas for which agreement may be reached at national, local or local level.

These framework agreements may be concluded jointly for the three public services or for one of the three public services.

They may also be concluded for a single ministerial department and public institutions under the supervision of that ministerial department.

The purpose of these framework agreements is to determine the conditions and possibly the timetable for the negotiations.

Method Agreements

Before the negotiations begin, method agreements may also be concluded.

Methodological agreements may provide for training in the negotiation of participants, subject to the conditions which they lay down.

Signing of the collective agreement

The signature of the agreement shall be subject to prior approval by the ministers responsible for the budget and the civil service where the agreement covers the following areas and includes regulatory measures:

  • Career development and career development
  • Collective interest and conditions for the implementation of compensation policies
  • Complementary social protection

Where the agreement relates to a subject which falls within the competence of a collegial or deliberative body (for example a municipal council), it may enter into force only on one of the following conditions:

  • The collegiate or deliberative body authorized the administrative or territorial authority to enter into negotiations and conclude the agreement
  • The collegiate or deliberative body approved the agreement after checking its conditions of validity

A regional or local authority or a public body which does not have a social committee may authorize the management center to negotiate and conclude an agreement.

The application of the Agreement shall be subject to its approval by the territorial authority or the deliberative assembly.

Opening of negotiations

Trade union organizations may request to open negotiations at national, local or local level if they have received at least a total of 50% votes cast in the last professional elections.

The competent administrative or territorial authority at territorial level receiving such a request shall acknowledge receipt thereof within 15 days.

It shall propose a meeting to consider whether the conditions for opening a negotiation are met within 2 months of the date of receipt of the request to open a negotiation.

Within 15 days of the meeting, the administrative or territorial authority shall inform the trade union organizations of the action it is taking on the request.

Agreements shall be valid if they are signed by one or more trade union organizations representing at least 50% the votes cast in the last professional elections held at the level at which the agreement is negotiated.

Any agreement shall be published by the signatory administrative or territorial authority.

An agreement containing regulatory measures shall be published under the same conditions as the administrative acts to which it is substituted (Official Journal, Compendium of Administrative Acts, etc.).

Any agreement is then forwarded by the signatory authority to the minister responsible for the public service, local and regional authorities or health so that it is made available to all officials.

An agreement shall enter into force on the day following its publication or at a later date fixed by the agreement.

An agreement concluded by the director of a public hospital can only be published after the Regional Health Agency (ARS) has verified its compliance with the laws and decrees in the Council of State.

The LRA must verify the compliance of the agreement within 2 months. That period may be extended by one month if further information is required. In the absence of a reply within that period, the agreement may be published.

If the agreement does not comply with the higher standards, the LRA shall inform the Social Committee.

An agreement may be amended by a new agreement.

In exceptional circumstances, the administrative or territorial authority signing an agreement may, after 15 days' notice, suspend its application for a maximum period of 3 months renewable once.

The authority then informs the signatory trade union organizations of the reasons justifying the suspension and, if necessary, its renewal.

An agreement may be revised at the initiative of the signatory administrative or territorial authority or of all or part of the trade unions, signatory or not, representing at least 50% votes cast in the last professional elections.

An agreement of indefinite duration may be terminated in whole or in part by the signatory parties if the terms of the agreement can no longer be applied.

If the agreement is denounced by one or more trade union organizations, they must represent at least 50% votes cast in the last professional elections.

The denunciation shall take place after one month's notice.

To date, 1 collective agreement has been signed between the three public services: the agreement on the implementation of telework in the public service of july 13, 2021.