What the PACTE law changes for employee savings and participation?

Abstract

France has a one of the longest- and best-established employee financial participation system in the world with 3.5 million employee-owners, the largest number of employee-owners of any European country (EFES, 2019). It has also been the first country in 1967 to have compulsory profit-sharing schemes in firms employing 50 or more. The PACTE law (action plan for the growth and transformation of companies) has been promulgated in France in 2019. The PACTE law introduces new measures that support employee financial participation through profit-sharing, gainsharing and employee ownership and, second, employee participation in decision-making through labor representation in corporate governance and social dialogue. First, gainsharing and profit-sharing bonuses are promoted in small businesses by decreasing the social tax. Second, the law introduces developments relating to the representation of employee shareholders and employees, first in corporate governance and, second, in the supervisory boards of company savings funds (CSF). The objective of this paper is to present the new measures of the PACTE law that will affect the development of employee financial participation.