Posted Nov 10, 2022, 6:40 PM
After the emergency measures on purchasing power passed this summer, which made it easier to use profit-sharing for smaller businesses and to perpetuate a new formula “Macron bonus”, the government indicated that it wanted to “go further” on the distribution of profits within companies.
Also the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, he proposed to the social partners an interprofessional negotiation to strengthen “the sharing of value” within companies.
Three devices already exist: profit-sharing (a bonus conditional on the performance or results of a company), the participation (compulsory mechanism in companies with more than 50 employees with an immediate payment or placed in savings) and finally bonuses punctual.
The social partners had already been invited to work on such a subject during the first five-year term and the subject appeared in Emmanuel Macron’s program for 2022. Debate on superprofits, controversies over the remuneration of big bosses and the impact of inflation on salary negotiations… the pretexts for putting the subject back on the table have multiplied in recent months.
“When you suddenly have an increase in dividends for your shareholders, then the company must have a mechanism that is identical for employees,” Emmanuel Macron recently reiterated.
Three lines of thought
Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labour, Full Employment and Integration.NICOLAS NICOLAS MESSYASZ/SIPA
In his specifications, Olivier Dussopt set three lines of thought for the social partners.
The first is to ” generalize the benefit of value-sharing schemes for employees, especially in the smallest companies “. The employee dividend, which Emmanuel Macron had pushed during the presidential campaign but whose implementation is far from certain, in particular in the face of the hostility of employers, is only mentioned at the turn of a sentence and without naming it. , a sign of considerable latitude left to future negotiators. The guidance document speaks of “a value-sharing mechanism whose triggering would depend on the results, the company’s performance or the shareholder’s remuneration policy”.
The second line of work is the modernization” of the participation formula et « the articulation” between the Macron bonus and the various employee savings schemes.
Finally, a third reflection is opened on the means ofdirect employee savings “towards the main priorities of common interest “. A broad subject covering responsible and solidarity investments, but also the productive economy and ecological transition.
The idea is to come up with proposals by the end of January 2023, failing which “the government will assume its responsibilities”, indicated the Minister of Labor.
Trade unions and employers negotiate
Laurent Berger (CFDT) and Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux (Medef) in January 2020.Jacques Witt/SIPA
The social partners accepted the interprofessional negotiation proposed by the government and planned to meet ten times between November 21 and January 30. Their work is expected to be completed no later than January 31, 2023.
Initially – until December 2 – they will engage in a diagnostic phase. The first three sessions will be devoted to this, including the hearing of experts.
It should be noted that the trade unions have put pressure to go beyond the demands made by the government in its orientation document and have demanded to also talk about wages.
The presidential majority also phosphorus
Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty.JEANNE ACCORSINI/SIPA
After having been the first to close the door to any taxation of superprofits or superdividends, and to consider that much had been done for the purchasing power of the French people, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno the Mayor now believes that the sharing of value must “be the major project of the majority”. The Minister, who is also in charge of ideas within Renaissance (ex-La République En Marche), announced on November 7 in “Le Parisien” thata convention on the subject would be organized by the party in early 2023. He wishes to associate “economists, business leaders, employees, opposition groups to identify new ideas in addition to the work undertaken with the social partners”.
“When a company has enough to pay dividends to its shareholders, it must reward its employees,” said the minister. “An SME and a very large group of several thousand employees cannot [peuvent] not be treated the same. Public enterprises must also participate,” he said. “The best sharing of value must be the major project of the majority. The employee dividend is profit for all, ”he added, not excluding that this work will lead to a bill emanating from the majority.
MEP Pascal Canfin.snapshot/Future Image/D Anoragan
Pascal CanfinMEP and Deputy Secretary General of Renaissance, is currently leading a mission on value sharing. It is a question of “finding a compromise between two issues: maintaining the achievements of the supply policy which allows reindustrialization and a low unemployment rate, and ensuring that in the companies which earn money, the sharing is also done for the benefit of the employees”, he explained to “Liberation” on November 9. Its conclusions are expected in mid-November.
Jean Paul Mattei, president of the Modem group in the National Assembly.Jacques Witt/SIPA
The leader of the Modem deputies, Jean-Paul Mattei, whose amendment providing for a taxation of “superdividends” was adopted against the government’s opinion during the first reading of the finance bill but was not adopted after recourse to article 49.3, constantly pleads for a “global reflection for a better equity between the taxation of work and the taxation of capital”. He now evokes a “system where, in the event of superdividends, there would be no additional tax but more profit-sharing and bonuses for employees”. The idea of additional participation paid on an exceptional basis is thus gaining ground.