The Economy minister Bruno Le Maire is shown reserved Wednesday, October 18, on the idea of bringing representatives of the employees in the boards of directors of companies of intermediate size, while judging that they were to be “best associated with results” of their society. “Anything that helps to better associate employees with the results and the definition of the strategy of the company is going in the right direction,” said The Mayor during a meeting organised by the Club of the Economics of the World.
“Does that mean +decision-making power+ or not, it is necessary to discuss it. Is this as it should lead to more space in the boards, this is not the only solution,” added the minister. The Mayor said he would open debate next week, in the framework of working groups involving members of parliament and of the patrons, in view of the “draft act on the transformation of enterprises”, which will be presented in 2018.
“This is an issue that is very sensitive,” insisted the minister, calling for caution in comparisons with the model of “co-decision to the German,” where employees are present in decision-making bodies. “In France, when we speak of participation, it is participation in the board of directors. In Germany, this is not the board of directors, it is a body which has no power,” he stressed. “So this is not the same thing to say that we will expand the board to the employee or of the words in German”, he continued.
“True debate”
The government spokesman Christophe Castaner had estimated on Monday that the incentive and participation, as the government wishes to develop within companies, would lead to the entry of employees in the boards of directors.
“This is one of the objectives of the draft act on the transformation of enterprises, pointed out Mr. Castaner. “If we want to reassert the position of the employees in the company, it is necessary to change the governance”, he estimated.
Act of 2015, the presence of one or two representatives of employees is mandatory on the boards or oversight of the companies that have their registered office in France and which employ at least 1,000 employees. It is only necessary, however, not to the companies of more modest size.
In a televised speech Sunday, Emmanuel Macron has said he wanted “a real debate” in 2018 to “revisit this wonderful invention gaullist profit-sharing and participation”, that “all employees have their fair share when things are getting better.”
(With AFP)
