Sector-level bargaining and possibilities for deviations at company level : France

The right to collective bargaining is set out in the 1972 French Labour Code. In the last decades, collective bargaining has expanded, partly as a result of government initiatives. The importance of sectoral bargaining increased with the adoption of the 1982 Auroux laws, which obliged the bargaining parties already bound by a sectoral agreement to negotiate pay annually and to discuss the sector’s job classification system and its economic development every five years. The Auroux laws also stimulated company-level bargaining by making annual negotiations on pay and working time obligatory in companies with union representation.