FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Laetitia Tombarello and Audrey Demourgues, Bredin Prat
the size of their offices and, most importantly, the related costs. Flex office is the practice of not allocating a specific workstation to an employee, but allowing them to move from one space to another depending on their tasks and missions: a free desk in their own office, a meeting space, a co-working room, a café, etc. This concept should be distinguished from the other popular concept of desk sharing, which means that employees no longer have allocated desks, but can sit wherever they like on company premises. The implementation of these working arrangements is normally subject to prior consultation of the com - pany’s works council (if any), as these arrangements have an impact on employee working conditions. The Status of “Platform Workers” As of 2023, approximately 600,000 people worked as independent contractors for digital platforms in France, especially in the ride-hailing and food deliv - ery sectors. In France, as elsewhere, this new form of work has become increasingly popular, but has also raised a number of legal issues. These workers are typically not hired under an employ - ment contract, and as such are not entitled to the ben - efits usually associated with a salaried employee sta - tus, such as paid leave or unemployment insurance. This has led many platform workers to seek the reclas - sification of their relationship with a digital platform as an employment contract, sometimes successfully, including in front of the French Supreme Court. In response to this ever-growing number of workers and related disputes, the government enacted several laws to try to regulate relationships between these “independent contractors” and companies using digi - tal platforms and apps to connect with their custom - ers. For instance, since 2019, digital platforms have had a “social responsibility” towards their contractors, and are required to contribute to their work insurance and training costs. Platform workers may also form and join trade unions through which they can repre - sent their collective interests.
In May 2022, the government organised elections for representatives of platform workers working in food delivery, in order to encourage social dialogue between them and the digital platforms. Since then, several national collective bargaining agreements have been negotiated, particularly on matters relat - ing to: • the negotiation of collective agreements in the sec - tor; • the minimum revenue guaranteed to platform workers; and • the termination of commercial relations between platforms and workers. At EU level, a Directive establishing a legal presump - tion of employee status for platform workers and cre - ating a framework to regulate the algorithms used by digital platforms was formally approved by the Euro - pean Parliament in April 2024 and by the European Council in October 2024. The Directive is now await - ing publication in the EU’s Official Journal, after which member states, including France, will have two years to transpose its provisions into their national legisla - tion. Trade unions are involved on a daily basis in many areas of labour law in France: collective bargaining, health and safety, working hours, wages, etc. Within this general framework, a specific role is assigned to so-called “representative unions”. To be considered as representative within a compa - ny, a trade union must have scored at least 10% at the last employee representative elections and must prove that it meets several criteria, including: • respecting republican values; • being independent vis-à-vis the employer; • applying financial transparency; • having sufficient influence through its activity and experience; and • having a certain number of members. 6. Collective Relations 6.1 Unions
203 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook