UNIVERSITY DEGREE | Law and Practice of Social Dialogue

Labor law reform is accelerating, and the center of gravity is shifting even more strongly toward collective agreements. The "El Khomri" law clearly embraces this direction, which has been underway for several years, and reinforces the primacy of company agreements while consolidating the role of the industry. This overhaul of labor law provides an opportunity to better adapt the rule of law to a world of work that is diversifying more rapidly and intensely.

This collective agreement, shared by many European Union countries, calls for a change in the behavior of those involved in collective bargaining. However, this is not happening. Not only are "the social partners not making sufficient use of the flexibility that the law gives them to deviate from the 'standard' regulatory framework " (M. Valls, letter dated April¹, 2015 addressed to Jean-Denis Combrexelle, Chair of the Social Section of the Council of State), but a culture of collective bargaining has not yet taken hold in our country.

In order to give new momentum to collective bargaining, the Combrexelle report, submitted to the Prime Minister on September 9, 2015, recommends the establishment of joint union/company training programs.

The El Khomri law incorporates this proposal by inserting several provisions into the Labor Code (Art. L. 2212-1) on the organization of joint training courses provided by training centers, institutes, or organizations with the assistance of the National Institute for Labor, Employment, and Vocational Training.