English Abstracts

Tristan HAUTE

In France, two ballots of employees of small businesses (known as “TPE” or “very small businesses,” those with fewer than 11employees) were held in2012 and in2017 to help gauge the level of union representation in the private sector. However, these votes for union organizations, without named candidates, conducted over the internet or by post, failed to rally employees(10.4 % turnout in2012 and 7.3% in2017).

While several studies have looked at the difficulties of holding of these ballots and at union methods of mobilising employees of small businesses, this article provides various further ways of explaining the extremely poor turnout recorded. It has less to do with the opinions of employees than with structural factors, to wit the specificities of a ballot in which nothing is at stake, the social and economic characteristics of employees of small businesses, and the insufficiency of union presence and contacts in such businesses. Meanwhile, certain business sectors where the stakes of the ballot are a little more relevant and where corporate unions are developing service activities, such as that of the childcare assistant, show a considerably higher level of voter mobilisation.

Keywords: very small business, TPE, ballot, vote, union representation, turnout, private sector.

Labour relations in the social enterprise sector. Not-for-profit employers and employees in the face of the ambivalence of their roles

Simon COTTIN-MARX

Is the world of the not-for-profit organisation a working world just like any other? To answer this question, sociologists have forged the idea of the “associative enterprise,” underlining the fluctuation of these employers between two modes, those of the cause-driven organisation and the world of business. In this article, based on a survey of not-for-profit employers, and of employees of such organisations, the author examines in turn how cause-driven activity affects employees, and how having paid employees affects the activism of not-for-profit organisations. Working in the not-for-profit sphere (often) means working “for the cause” and “with” volunteers. It can also be a matter of working “for” not-for-profit organisations, for which the role of employer is often an unexpected responsibility and one that is difficult to manage. These peculiarities are characteristic of labour relations in small not-for-profit enterprises and undermine the relative stances of employer and employee.

Key words: associative enterprise, social enterprise, labour relations, employment relationship, causes, employee, not-for-profit employer, cause-driven, volunteer.

New kinds of jobs, new kinds of work... new challenges for unions?

Marie-Christine BUREAU, Frédéric REY and Carole TUCHSZIRER

This article examines the potential routes to a revival of collective action in the face of a number of changes impacting the world of work: the importance of information technology, the rise of online platforms, and the development of new forms of freelance work. From our field research, we have identified four patterns liable to shed light on these new issues for unions arising from shifts in the nature of jobs and of work generally. In each case, there is plenty to be considered, whether in relation to the traditional themes of collective demands (pay, working hours, health), or questions of protection and independence posed by the new types of work and jobs. Furthermore, new collective players have emerged, with which unions are trying – or not – to work in the establishment of new rights.

Keywords: collective action, revival of unions, changes in the world of work, online platform, protection, independence.

Support for those excluded from the jobs market: Principles and issues of an unstable social relationship

Julie COURONNÉ, Léa LIMA, Frédéric REY, Barbara RIST and Nicolas ROUX

This article looks at the representations and practices of support services for the long-term unemployed. Proponents of such measures extol the virtues of the support relationship as well as the independence and involvement of those being supported, over and above the “contract” formalising the relationship as well as the rights and obligations of both parties to the support relationship. The complexity of this interaction is readily apparent, spanning various types of relationship: interpersonal, professional and that of service provision. The dynamics and professional regulation of support services are aimed at adapting to its variable and ever-evolving nature and the idiosyncrasies of each situation. However, support providers do not always have the resources at their disposal, within their organisation and in the local area, to meet the expectations of support recipients, whether in relation to getting back into work or to an egalitarian vision of the support offered.

Keywords: support relationship, excluded from jobs market, long-term unemployed, independence, involvement.

Between a “culture of prevention” and counterpower: Occupational health training for staff representatives

Louis-Marie BARNIER, Paul BOUFFARTIGUE, Sonia GRANAUX and Jean-René PENDARIÈS

How are staff representatives on statutory committees trained in occupational health and safety? A study based mainly on the observation, in 2016-2017, of five preparatory courses for future members of hygiene, safety and working conditions committees (CHSCT), from five different providers, shows that they subscribe in varying proportions to three models of workplace risk prevention: “legal-technical,” “ergonomic” and “union.” These models are linked to varying perspectives on the role of the statutory committee – between working closely with environmental health and safety (HSE) management on the one hand and embodying union counterpower on the other – as well as to the remit of the elected person: a technical expert like any other, or first and foremost a representative of a collective. Occupational health training for workers’ representatives on the economic and social committee (CSE) will come up against the same variability, and is made more demanding by having to incorporate its ties to the management of the business.

Keywords: training, occupational health, workers’ representatives, hygiene, safety and working conditions committee, economic and social committee.

The global company agreement, a policy instrument for transnational groups

Pauline BARRAUD DE LAGERIE, Arnaud MIAS, Camille PHÉ and Laurence SERVEL

This article demonstrates that transnational collective bargaining within a company is no longer tied to the drafting of negotiated ethical charters but is rather more connected to the business-wide policies of multinational groups on the matter of corporate social responsibility. Company management has become more of an active instigator of negotiations, and the agreements signed are used as regulatory instruments between the group and its subsidiaries. The increasingly sophisticated content of the agreements, the broadening of their scope and the introduction of monitoring procedures are indicative of this shift and call for the use of the term “global company agreements.” Through a reconstruction of the process of (re)negotiation in three big French companies, this article identifies two new rationales at work – constitutional and instrumental – each representative of a distancing from the hitherto pervasive bottom-up rationale of international framework agreements.

Keywords: global company agreement, transnational collective bargaining, company policy, multinational group, corporate social responsibility.