At the end of this eleventh and last day of negotiations, Friday February 10, around 8 p.m., all the representatives of the unions and employers seem worn out. After long discussions, “we are reaching an agreement which should be signed by the majority of the trade unions”, rejoices Hubert Mongon, leader of the employers’ delegation, at the initiative of the text under discussion.
On the side of the unions, we are still waiting for February 22 to confirm their decision, a date set to allow time for internal consultation, while the protest against the pension reform monopolizes all minds. For the moment, FO and the CFDT seem favorable, while the CFE-CGC and the CFTC express a “reserved opinion”. The CGT, faithful to its opposition to bonuses and its demand for a general increase in wages, has, for its part, participated in the discussions, but is not expected to sign the agreement.
The rejection of the “employee dividend”
If the social partners have been negotiating on this subject for many months, it is because they had to respond to a framework letter from the government asking them to get down to improving the sharing of value in business. A proposal that directly echoes Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise to establish a “employee dividend”, to enable employees to be better associated with the company’s results. For example by paying them a bonus proportional to the dividends for the shareholders.
“Employee dividend”, profit-sharing, wages… unions and employers are working on the sharing of value
But this new concept did not convince either the unions or the employers’ organisations, and the agreement makes it clear that its signatories “pledge not to support” this proposition. Instead, the social partners wanted to simplify and improve the main value-sharing mechanisms that already exist.
Towards a partial generalization of participation
And it is above all around participation, the mechanism for redistributing profits for the benefit of employees, that the discussion has stretched. Compulsory today for companies with more than 50 employees, the unions have pushed for it to also be compulsory for those below this threshold. « Our objective was to be able to allow employees of small businesses to benefit more from the sharing of value, from which they are today largely excluded”, details Luc Mathieu of the CFDT.
Employers, at first totally hermetic to the extension of participation to all companies, finally proposed limiting this obligation for companies with 11 to 50 employees, and only for those who have benefited over the last three consecutive years, from from January 1, 2025.
For all other companies with fewer than 50 employees, employers have proposed an obligation to open negotiations in each professional branch before June 30, 2024, without constraint as to their outcome, which the unions have accepted.
Disagreements over the value-sharing bonus
The issue of the Value Sharing Bonus (PPV), formerly Prime Macron has also stoked tensions. If employers’ organizations see “a proven device”, the unions are all opposed to it, because they see it above all as a pretext not to increase wages. The CFDT and the CFE-CGC wanted in particular to limit it to companies with fewer than 50 employees, which they did not obtain.
Super-dividends, the other reform after pensions
The problem of superprofits is also quickly addressed in this agreement, by reopening discussions on the level of employee participation or profit-sharing if the results of a company show ” an exceptional character as defined by the employer”. A symbolic addition for now. This question should be dealt with more at the political level, while the government could defend a bill on the sharing of value in the year 2023, as Bruno Le Maire suggested in the fall.
The culmination of social dialogue
Because beyond this fairly technical agreement, it is the outcome of the social dialogue that is above all put forward. “We welcome the outcome of these negotiations which, in terms of method, shows the ability of the social partners to take their responsibilities” welcomes Hubert Mongon, general delegate of the Union of industries and trades of metallurgy (UIMM).
If the unions assume to be very unhappy with the agreement, reaching it remained a way for them to send a message to the government, while the pension reform project revealed the failure of the executive to reach a consensus with the social partners.
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Without waiting for the result of the consultation of the social partners, Renaissance, the presidential party, announced the organization of a convention on the sharing of value which will take place on February 20, but whose first consultations will begin on Monday February 13.
A badly digested announcement among the social partners, leading the president of Medef Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux to talk about “negotiation not possible” car “members of the government and members of the Renaissance party announced the results before the end” of the discussion. This agreement on the sharing of value to be signed by a majority of the social partners, the ball is now in the court of the government, in order to know what it will keep of these proposals in a possible bill.