Industrial Law Reform in an Era of Retreat: The Auroux Laws in France

Abstract

France is perhaps the only country in the Western world which because of the predominance of class-struggle unionism has not developed a system of mutually binding collective bargaining. The Auroux Laws enacted under the presidency of Francois Mitterrand were chiefly designed to encourage workplace participation and contractual partnership between unions and management. This article examines their origins, rationale and short-term results to illustrate the dependency of legally-induced collective bargaining on the broader economic and political environment. Under depressive labour market and political conditions the reforms barely altered existing relationships. Their potentially integrative effects were vitiated by union weakness, radical opposition and the absence of material incentives for cooperation. While the reforms helped shift the focus of labour relations from the industry to the firm, it was a process dominated by management that left little room for collective participation or free and consensual bargaining.