Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has promised to transcribe this “compromise” found between the social partners into law.
She hailed a deal “very rich”. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, promised, Monday, February 20, “the faithful and total transcription” in the law of an agreement concluded between the unions and the employers’ organizations, relating to the “sharing of value” in business. “I make the commitment on behalf of the government”assured the head of government.
After several months of negotiations, the employers’ organizations (Medef, CPME and U2P), and the trade unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC and CFTC) presented on February 10 a text (PDF) aiming “to make it more accessible” schemes such as profit-sharing, participation and value-sharing bonuses within companies. Here are the highlights of this agreement, open for signature by trade unions and employers’ organizations until Wednesday.
“At least one device” for companies with 11 to 49 employees
The agreement points in particular to the underdevelopment of value-sharing tools in small businesses. According to management of research, studies and statistics from the Ministry of Labor (Dares), 52.8% of employees in all companies had access, in 2020, to at least one profit-sharing, profit-sharing or employee savings scheme. But this proportion was only 18.5% in companies with fewer than 50 employees.
At this stage, the profit-sharing scheme is compulsory for companies with at least 50 employees, if their workforce has been more than 50 people for five consecutive years. The interprofessional agreement provides for the establishment of“at least one legal value-sharing scheme” in companies with between 11 and 50 employees, if they have a net profit equivalent to at least 1% of turnover for three consecutive years and if they do not yet have such a system. “This obligation will come into force on January 1, 2025”, specifies the document.
In order to facilitate the implementation of profit-sharing in companies with less than 50 employees, the signatories “demand a modification of the legal framework”, they continue. Negotiations could take place in each branch before June 30, 2024, to make available to companies with fewer than 50 employees “an optional participation scheme”, “whose formula may derogate from the reference formula for participation”. Companies with less than 50 employees have the possibility to apply the branch system by collective agreement or unilateral decision, or, there also by collective agreement, another derogatory formula of participation, details the document. These proposals would be tested for five years from the signing of the agreement. A review of the experiment should take place “no later than six months before the end of the period”.
A better “taking into account” of exceptional results
In companies with more than 50 employees “subject to the obligation to set up participation”the agreement between trade unions and employers’ organizations evokes “the insertion of a specific clause” for a better “taking into account the results (…) achieved in France and presenting an exceptional character as defined by the employer”. The signatories propose, in this situation, “either the automatic payment of an additional profit-sharing or profit-sharing, the terms of which (…) are defined by agreement, or the referral to a new discussion on the payment of a value-sharing scheme”.
The integration of the old “Macron bonus” into a savings scheme
The agreement also goes back to the value-sharing bonus (PPV), formerly “Macron bonus” or “purchasing power bonus”, recalls the service-public.fr site. The signatories wish to allow employees “to place the PPV in a company savings and/or retirement savings plan”. “The PPV is indeed intended to be integrated into employee savings”, they point out. The agreement calls for “allow the granting of up to two PPVs each year within the limit of the ceiling and the number of payments currently provided for”.
The development of access for all employees to these systems
The agreement also refers to better inclusion of people with low wages in these schemes. The signatories explain in their agreement that they “wish to provide a reassuring legal framework for the many companies wishing to set up profit-sharing agreements providing for terms and conditions for awarding bonuses that are more favorable to the first levels of remuneration”. They also call for the development of “project profit-sharing”, which would allow “companies making extensive use of subcontracting to include all the employees of the companies concerned in their value-sharing arrangements”. Finally, employers’ organizations and trade unions are calling for better access to value-sharing schemes in the temporary work sector. It would be for this “to adjust the methods for allocating profit-sharing and participation”.
A “company valuation sharing plan” for employees
Another proposal of this agreement: the setting up by collective agreement, for voluntary companies, of a “new value-sharing device” who would be a “business valuation sharing plan”, intended for all employees with at least one year of seniority. Companies “who wish to set up employee shareholding are often hampered by the complexity of the operation and by the opening of the capital which implies in particular the opening of the governance”, point the signatories. Eligible employees would be “assign an indicative amount”. “At the end of a period of three years, the employee receives the amount corresponding to the percentage of valuation of the company applied to this indicative amount. specifies the agreement.
Early releases of company savings plans
The text also proposes to create “three new cases of early release” company savings plans (PEE), in order to“adapt employee savings to new challenges”. Sums invested could be released for “expenses related energy renovation” principal residences, for “to meet the expenses incurred as a caregiver” and finally for the purchase of a “clean” vehicle, whether new or used.