Erosion of national social standards and European blockage

(B2) National social standards have suffered, with the various economic shocks, the creation of a structural surplus of skilled or unskilled workers and globalization, repeated assaults that have ended up eroding them.

France is not spared by this movement. Contrary to what has often been said, the social system is not as effective as one might think. Or at least he isn't anymore. Indeed, since 1983, a trend that has been reinforced since 1986, successive governments have been keen both to make labor law more flexible and to develop numerous business aid systems, often renamed aid for employment - without the effectiveness of the pairing subsidies - jobs being always statistically correlated -, while not giving the control forces - labor inspectorates, courts, etc. - neither the means nor the political impetus necessary for this development. Thus, between undeclared flexible working hours, unpaid overtime in certain branches, the wide breach that has begun in Sunday rest and even in the two days of rest per week… not to mention the development of parallel contracts or freelance work, the employment system and French labor law, designed to regulate employees on open-ended contracts in a medium-sized industrial-type company, appear increasingly unsuitable.

Social blockage at the national level. If, in each Member State, the main national actors seem to sacrifice everything to a social priority, in fact they are forced to make other choices. Governments have had to put the social element in second place in their budgetary and political priorities, to satisfy a policy, called according to the country and the era, “austerity”, “realism”, “rigour”… , or compliance with European “convergence or stability criteria”. The social partners usually also have other priorities.

A blockage common to European countries. While local situations can sometimes diverge, two phenomena seem common in Europe. First of all, the erosion of unionization is not a phenomenon specific to France. Then, the main trade union centers have often embarked on a policy of co-management which seems to have some difficulty in evolving even if the places differ.