Pursuant to the Law of 17 August 2015 (the New Law), the ordinary meeting of the works council can now occur every two months in companies employing less than 300 employees in France, instead of once a month so far.
Until the New Law, the ordinary works council’s meeting could take place once every two months only in companies employing less than 150 employees, providing they did not have a Unified Council (i.e., a council in which the staff delegates are also the works council’s members).
As Unified Councils are extremely frequent in companies of less than 150 employees, the ordinary works council’s meeting occurs once a month in most companies of that size.
However, the New Law provides (i) that the Unified Council can be implemented in companies of less than 300 employees (instead of less than 200) and (ii) that the ordinary meeting of the Unified Council occurs once every two months.
Therefore, in all companies of less than 300 employees in France, regardless of whether or not they have a Unified Council, the ordinary meeting of the works council can now take place every two months, instead of once a month.
The New Law therefore extends the possibility to hold the ordinary works council’s meeting once every two months to a huge number of companies.
If meetings are well prepared, it is feasible to hold only six works council’s meetings per year, instead of 12. The reduction of the number of annual consultations from 17 to three as of 1st January 2016 should facilitate the transition.
Written by
Sébastien Le Cœur
MGG Legal
