Issues, instructions, “yellow vest” union… What you need to know about the elections in small businesses which start this Monday – Libération

It's a vote that the Ministry of Labor and the unions struggle to say every three or four years about how important it is. And yet it does not seem to arouse the slightest passion in those it concerns. From this Monday, November 25 and until December 9, nearly 5.4 million employees of very small businesses (VSE) and home workers are called to vote as part of the “VSE election”, including c This is the fourth edition.

In 2021, the vote took place in a France that was still covid, under curfew, with many businesses closed. The participation rate was 5.44% for some 266,000 voters, two points less than in 2017 and a division almost in half compared to the 2012 edition, the first. What Philippe Martinez, general secretary of the CGT at the time, could not “not to be satisfied” even if his union had once again come out well in the lead. This time, the Ministry of Labor hopes to bring together more employees with a significantly simplified system: to vote online, all you need to do is log in with your France Connect identifiers. But the difficulties are also due to the fragmentation of the electoral body and the difficulty of campaigning in these companies, where the union presence is not necessarily viewed favorably. The Union of Local Businesses (U2P), an employers' movement mainly representing VSEs, assures that it will act “to local business leaders so that they make it easier for their employees to vote”.

What is this election for for employees?

In principle, professional elections in companies allow employees to provide themselves with representatives who will defend their rights against the employer. Problem: those who work in companies with fewer than 11 employees (nearly 4 million voters this year according to the CFDT), or in the service of an individual employer (1.5 million), do not have access to this right and only have their employer as contact. We're talking about the people of building caretakers, salespeople, pharmacy technicians, construction workers, hairdressers, childminders… And it must be said that the TPE election, the only professional ballot that allows them is proposed, will not change anything. What they are used for, however, is to designate representatives at the level of the professional branches concerned, who can, among other things, negotiate salary agreements. The vote will also be decisive in the composition of the Regional Interprofessional Joint Commissions (CPRI), bodies which the CGT deplores have “few levers for action”. The results will also be used to designate advisors who will sit on industrial tribunals where conflicts between employees and their employers are judged.

Who can vote and how?

Any person aged at least 16 who was on a permanent contract, on a fixed-term contract or in an apprenticeship on December 31, 2023 in a company with fewer than 11 employees or in the service of an individual employer. And this, without condition of nationality. The Ministry of Labor has put online a page dedicated to the election where you can check your correct registration on the electoral lists, and vote when the day comes.

Measuring the union audience, a national issue

For candidate union organizations, the ballot is particularly important: it is taken into account in measuring the union audience at the national level. However, it is this audience which determines the weight of a union, and therefore its capacity to sign a national inter-professional agreement (for example, on the employment of seniors as recently), to influence negotiations, or to be invited to a consultation by the government. The audience is calculated by aggregating the results of the ballots in companies with more than 11 employees and this VSE election. In 2021, the CFDT consolidated its first place in the union landscape, with an audience of 26.77%, almost four points ahead of the CGT (22.96%), FO (15.24%), the CFE-CGC ( 11.92%) and the CFTC (9.50%). But in the 2021 TPE elections, it was the CGT which came well ahead with ten points ahead of the CFDT (16.46%), closely followed by Unsa, third with almost 16% of the votes. Hoping to repeat its performance, the union of autonomous unions set up a free hotline this year for VSE employees.

A union claiming to be yellow vests authorized to participate

The 2024 ballot is marked by a novelty: a union claiming to be part of the yellow vest movement is also participating, without any concrete element allowing it to be linked to this entirely decentralized social movement. The organization was authorized to present itself in October by the Paris court, after an appeal by six trade union centers (CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFDT, CFTC and Unsa) which considered that it did not meet the criteria of “respect for republican values”, because of “the regular violence of his words and the illicit nature of his actions”. Founded, reports the World, by former CFDT activists, this “yellow vest union” has so far only put online, in view of the vote, a leaflet consisting of a succession of photos of a black cat, accompanied by a few sentences explaining for example: “We negotiate firmly but always with competence and kindness. If your employer sticks to its positions, we go into yellow vest mode with punchy actions.”