Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

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

The Committee notes the observations of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) received on 30 August 2024, and those of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT) received on 24 October 2024, as well as the Government’s responses to those observations, received on 25 October and 14 November 2024.

Articles 1 and 3 of the Convention. Implementation of an active employment policy.Consultation of the social partners. In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the impact of the active labour market measures taken to promote sustainable employment and decent work, particularly within the framework of the implementation of the provisions of Act No. 2018-771 of 5 September 2018, of the “Recovery France” (France Relance) plan and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The Government indicates in its report that the Directorate for Research, Studies and Statistics (DARES) has developed a viewing portal giving access to monitoring data of the main employment programmes, to vocational training and support for jobseekers, disaggregated by age. The Committee notes that a 2024 publication by the DARES evaluates the reform of minimum conditions for affiliation to the unemployment insurance system and recalls that since the Act of 2018, the State has provided greater oversight of the social partners’ negotiations; in the absence of agreement, the rules for compensation were fixed by the Decree of 26 July 2019.

In their observations, the CGT and CFDT denounce the lack of consultation on the unemployment insurance system, given that the State’s guidelines were so prescriptive as to leave the social partners almost no room for manoeuvre in their negotiations. In general, the CGT believes that it is increasingly less possible to consider that the workers’ representatives are “consulted” in the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention. In response, the Government states that the law gives the social partners established powers to define the rules of unemployment insurance, subject to approval by the Prime Minister. It explains that the Act No. 2018-771 strengthened the role of the State through communication of a “framework document” setting out the objectives, particularly the financial planning. The Government indicates that the State was obliged to define the rules of compensation by a decree adopting remedial measures on several occasions due to the failure of negotiations (2019) or legislative suspension (2023). Regarding the recent cycle, the Government indicates that an agreement was concluded with the social partners on 10 November 2023, but the Prime Minister refused agreement by Order of 10 May 2024, due to its “incompatibility with the financial planning and the objectives for developing the rules of the framework document”. However, the Government emphasizes that the Ministry of Labour invited the social partners, by a letter of 9 October 2024, to return to the negotiating table, with a prolongation of the existing rules to 31 December 2024.

Furthermore, the Government indicates that to promote full employment, Act No. 2023-1196 of 18 December 2023 aims at improving support for jobseekers and the effectiveness of the public employment service, as part of the transformation of Pôle emploi to France Travail. Two major developments are foreseen: (1) better identification and support for jobseekers, including automatic registration with France Travail for those receiving the minimum income (the active solidarity income (revenue de solidarité active)) (RSA); (2) the creation of an employment network, to coordinate actors in employment, vocational training and insertion, and to develop shared practices among the different actors. According to the statistics provided by the Government, in the first quarter of 2024 the unemployment rate stabilized against the previous quarter, at 7.5 per cent of the active population, that is, 0.4 of a point higher than the level in the last quarter of 2022 and first quarter of 2023, which was the lowest level since 1982. According to the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), the unemployment rate for the second quarter of 2025 is stable at 7.5 per cent.

The Committee notes that, according to the OECD, the number of temporary workers has diminished since 2017, but at 16.2 per cent in 2022, it remains 11.3 per cent higher than the OECD average. Temporary employment is particularly high for the 15–24 years age bracket, with 55.7 per cent against 25.3 per cent for the OECD country average (OECD Economic Surveys: France 2024). The Government indicates that the employment rate (68.8 per cent) and participation in the labour market (74.5 per cent) of persons from 15 to 64 years of age reached their highest level since 1975 in the first quarter of 2024. The Government indicates that this progression principally concerns persons over 55 years. In the framework of the European Employment Strategy, the European Union has set an employment target of 78 per cent for persons from 20 to 64 years by 2030, and France also has adopted this objective. According to the INSEE, the employment rate continued to progress to 69.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2025.

Taking note of the above information, the Committee requests the Government to:

• provide detailed, quantified information on the impact of the active labour market measures – including those related to the transformation of Pôle emploi to France Travail (Act No 2023-1196) – not only in respect of the 78 per cent employment rate objective, but also regarding the improved quality of the jobs created;
• take specific measures to address the high proportion of temporary and precarious employment, particularly among young persons (15–24 years), where the rate stands at 55.7 per cent. In this connection, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the actions planned to ensure that the employment policy is directed towards full, productive and freely chosen employment and decent work;
• continue to provide statistics disaggregated by age, sex and socio-occupational category, enabling an evaluation of the effectiveness of the support measures aimed at vulnerable groups (long-term jobseekers, older and younger workers, persons receiving the RSA), based on indicators of the long-term impact of these measures on their integration into sustainable work.

Moreover, with regard to the consultations required under Article 3 of the Convention, the Committee notes that the withholding of approval of the 2023 agreement, on the grounds of failure to respect the financial framework fixed by the State, is illustrative of the constraints weighing on social dialogue and of the fact that the margin for negotiation appears severely limited by the initial budgetary planning. The Committee recalls in this regard, in conformity with Article 1(3) of the Convention, that employment policy must fit within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy. As the General Survey of 2020 emphasizes, there is an intrinsic link between employment and social protection. Systems of unemployment benefit are not merely passive protection measures but play a key role in active employment policies through their influence on occupational transitions, encouragement to return to employment and access to training (enabling devices). Consequently, the governance and definition of the rules of unemployment insurance are an integral part of measures that must be decided and reviewed regularly in the framework of the national employment policy, in consultation with the employers’ and workers’ representatives, in order to ensure the necessary coherence between unemployment compensation and the objective of full and productive employment. The Committee also recalls that both the letter and the spirit of the consultations provided for in the Convention go beyond simply providing information or validating pre-established decisions. Social dialogue on employment policy is effectively based on a principle of economic governance that brings together the representatives of the areas concerned, and in particular the social partners, with a view to taking fully into account their experience and views and securing their full cooperation in formulating and enlisting support for such policies. These consultations also ensure coherence between employment policy and the range of macroeconomic and social policies of the country, as required under Article 2 of the Convention. Consequently, in order to comply with these objectives and to be considered effective, the consultations must take place as early as possible, from the first steps in formulating the policies, to allow the social partners and other representatives of the areas concerned to use their expertise to influence significantly the substance of the measures taken. The Committee emphasizes therefore that the ultimate objective of Article 3 is to obtain the full collaboration of the social partners and to guarantee that they take ownership of the policies, an essential condition to their effective implementation. Therefore, if the financial framework imposed by the State renders validation of agreements achieved through social dialogue impossible, the entire intention of securing the social partners’ collaboration in the objectives of the Convention is compromised. In this regard, the Committee considers that the grave doubts expressed by the organizations representing the workers, concerning the prescriptive nature of the State’s framework document, could in fact constitute a major difficulty in attaining the objectives of the Convention.

In light of the above, the Committee requests the Government to:

• clarify the manner in which it conciliates the requirement to respect a strict financial framework with the obligation under the Convention to take full account of the views of the social partners and to seek their full cooperation in formulating the employment policy;
• explain how the new process ensures that the social partners have a sufficient marge of manoeuvre to assert their views and experience without the framework documents pre-empting de facto the result of the negotiation;
• provide information on the practical operation of the employment network (France Travail) and on the manner in which the employers’ and workers’ representatives are involved in its governance and in monitoring the support measures;
• specify the institutional mechanisms established to ensure coordination of the employment policy with the economic and social policies, in consultation with the social partners, as required under Article 2 of the Convention.

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