Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Employment Policy Convention, 1964 (No. 122) - France (Ratification: 1971)

Article 1(2) of the Convention. Implementation of an active employment policy. With reference to its previous comments, the Government indicates in a report received in August 2014 that the years 2012 and 2013 were characterized by a return of job destruction, an increase in temporary employment and in underemployment. The unemployment rate in the first quarter of 2014 was 10.2 per cent of the economically active population. In metropolitan France, unemployment amounted to 2.8 million persons, with underemployment affecting around 1.6 million workers. The Committee notes that the reduction in the cost of labour for enterprises is the principal strategy adopted by the Government, particularly through the Tax Credit for Competitiveness and Employment (CICE) introduced in January 2013; the National Pact for Growth, Productivity and Employment, launched in November 2012; and the Responsibility and Solidarity Pact, announced in 2014. The Committee notes that, in exchange for the Responsibility Pact, the occupational branches will make commitments in terms of employment, vocational training and the quality of employment. The Government adds that part of these subsidies will be financed, not by an increase in taxation, but by a reduction in public expenditure. The Committee invites the Government to continue providing information on the active labour market policy implemented. It also invites the Government to conduct an evaluation of the measures adopted, with an indication of their impact in terms of creating productive jobs and combating unemployment and underemployment, and to indicate the ways in which the initiatives taken by the Government to reduce public debt have affected the employment situation.

Article 3. Participation of the social partners. The Government indicates that it has made social dialogue one of its priorities and a pillar of its method of governing. It reports the National Interoccupational Agreement (ANI) on competitiveness and employment security concluded by the social partners in January 2013, the objective of which is to establish a new balance between the security required by employed persons and the possibilities for adaptation that are indispensable to enterprises. More recently, interoccupational negotiations on vocational training were completed in December 2013 with the conclusion of a national interoccupational agreement, which has served as a basis for the principal measures of the Act of 5 March 2014 respecting vocational training, employment and social democracy. This Act provides, among other measures, for the creation of individual training accounts and the establishment of vocational development counselling. In the context of the social conference held in July 2014, the Government and the social partners reaffirmed their commitment to employment and expressed the wish to extend their action, particularly in relation to employment for young persons, older workers and persons in difficulties. The Committee invites the Government to provide further examples of the participation of the social partners in the formulation of an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment.

The Committee is raising other matters in a direct request addressed directly to the Government.