In March 2008, the Higher Council for equality in employment in France examined the proposals of a working group set up to improve company reporting on the comparative employment and training conditions of male and female staff. Currently, less than a third of companies prepare such a report, and few company agreements on gender equality exist. The proposals form part of the government’s plan of action for promoting equality in employment.
Company reporting on gender equality
During a conference on gender equality in employment held in November 2007, the French Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Solidarity, Xavier Bertrand, announced the creation of a working group on the issue of corporate reporting on gender equality (FR0712029I). The group notably comprises representatives of the five trade union confederations and of the employer organisations, as well as human resources managers. The working group is responsible for improving company reporting on the comparative situation concerning the employment conditions of men and women.
Each year, companies with at least 50 workers must prepare a comparative report on the employment and training conditions of their male and female employees. This report is then submitted to the works council (Comité d’entreprise, CE) for its opinion. If the company has fewer than 300 employees, the report is included in the general annual report. However, currently, only about 30% of companies meet this obligation. Thus, the working group has been given the task of improving the number of companies which prepare this gender equality report.
Proposals of working group
The working group’s proposals focus on drawing up a report on the comparative employment and training situation of men and women. The report is composed of three parts, each of which contains statistical data, an analytical guide and help with establishing negotiated plans of action. Minister Bertrand declared that he will take the working group’s recommendations into account – as well as the opinion of the Higher Council for equality in employment (Conseil supérieur de l’égalité professionnelle entre les femmes et les hommes, CSEP). On 12 March 2008, CSEP examined the working group’s proposals.
Other points concerning gender equality in employment were also raised during the meeting with CSEP:
- creating two working groups on defining a diagnostic tool for companies with fewer than 50 employees;
- disseminating a policy document for the social partners on ensuring greater flexibility for women who work part time, as well as introducing dialogue at individual level regarding work-life balance.
These proposals constitute part of the government’s plan of action for promoting gender equality in employment. The aim is to address the problem of persistent gender inequality and bring a more dynamic approach to this field of action.
Implementing equality in employment
The small number of signed agreements at company level which are entirely devoted to gender equality in employment is a sign of existing difficulties in promoting equality in employment. Since 2002, only 125 company-level agreements have been signed, according to the Observatory for Corporate Social Responsibility (Observatoire sur la responsabilité sociétale des entreprises, ORSE). Companies still consider this topic to be marginal. Moreover, ORSE highlights that no gender equality agreements have been signed in companies with fewer than 1,000 employees.
In terms of economic sector, about 20% of the company-level agreements on gender equality have been signed in the financial intermediation sector and 12% in the transport sector. Just over half of the Continuous Assisted Quotation (Cotation Assistée en Continu, CAC) 40 companies – the group of the largest companies quoted on the Paris stock exchange – have signed a text aiming to eliminate the gender pay gap.
As for sectoral bargaining, since 2002 some 14 sectors or areas of economic activity have signed collective agreements that are entirely devoted to issues of gender equality in employment. This is notably the case of the metalworking industry and of permanent staff working in temporary employment agencies. They are due to be followed by the chemicals, oil and plastics industries.
Content of agreements
In most of the agreements, positive action implemented in companies concerns not only recruitment, but also promotion, occupational grading and pay, by defining, for example, a budget devoted to adjusting pay rates. This is the case of the agreement signed at the insurance company GMF Assurances in November 2007, which allots €150,000 for corrective action to eliminate the existing gender pay gap, while also undertaking measures to reinforce the presence of women in the highest grades.
Other company agreements concern parenthood, both for women and men – primarily by maintaining pay during paternity and maternity leave. This is the case, for instance, at the banking group HSBC, where women who return from maternity leave must receive an individual increase which is at least equal to that received, on average, during the previous three years or to that obtained by employees in the same category that year – the more favourable rule is applied. HSBC aims to achieve, by 2010, basic gender equality at every grade, assuming equivalent skills and performance.
Commentary
This attempt to make the approach to equality in employment more dynamic in France reflects the strategy of the European Commission. The latter adopted a programme of work on 12 March 2008 presenting activities carried out in 2007 and those planned in 2008 in the field of gender equality.
Christèle Meilland, Institute for Economic and Social Research (IRES)