The main findings of the 8th edition of the barometer
At national level, the survey reveals a perception of a worsening working climate for employees.
The elected representatives questioned made a number of observations about the working climate in France:
- a sense of gloom associated in part with the current economic and political situation (debt, reduced growth in 2024, etc.);
- the shared observation that French labor law is increasingly under threat, reducing prospects for improvement and generating a feeling of anxiety among elected representatives;
- the impression of a strong reluctance on the part of employees to enforce their rights as workers.
Context and general climate
- 2 out of 3 employee representatives consider their company’s economic situation to be good, the lowest score recorded since 2018
- The economic context is hardly conducive to calm dialogue, with companies’ economic difficulties appearing to generate tensions, and the political and budgetary context on a national scale is also identified as limiting social dialogue, particularly in organizations receiving public funds.
- There is an overall feeling of social backsliding within companies, with HR policies appearing increasingly strict and even unfair in the eyes of elected representatives. However, elected representatives from financially “healthy” companies also observe a deterioration in HR policies.
- Job protection plans (PSE), whether posted or not, appear to be a reality for several works council members, who deplore situations perceived as threatening and unfair, and the increasing number of individual departures (redundancies, conventional severance agreements), which seem to conceal larger-scale redundancy plans and the sidelining of trade unions.
General knowledge and image of the CSE
Two-thirds of employees have a good image of their CSE, a stable score compared to 2024. Overall, they are positive about the CSE, and the majority feel well represented: a score that is up again this year (+2 pts), to the highest level since the first measurement in 2021.
Social dialogue in 2025
- Managers rate social dialogue in their companies positively (average score 7.7/10), but employees remain more reserved (5.9/10), while employee representatives are even more critical (5.1/10).
- Employee representatives are less and less optimistic and more and more worried about their company’s CSE, to levels not seen since 2019. At the same time, feelings of anger are on the rise, while fewer employee representatives than ever before are adopting a wait-and-see stance.
- In mirror image, employee representatives report an increasingly tense mood on the part of management (+6 points vs. 2024 and the highest level observed since the first measurement in 2018), ahead of opportunism, traditionally in the lead.
- As in 2024, more and more employee representatives continue to identify the weakening of their influence vis-à-vis management and an increase in the time required of elected representatives as the main disadvantages of the CSE.
- More than 9 out of 10 employee representatives feel that their status has enabled them to develop additional skills. However, there is still little institutionalized recognition of experience or VAE.
- Finally, a large proportion of employee representatives perceive more disadvantages than advantages in terms of work-life balance, remuneration and career development.
Quality of life at work and working conditions
As far as health at work is concerned, both employee representatives and employees are critical of the company’s lack of awareness of the arduous nature of work. The majority of them also insist on the lack of consideration given to the impact on working conditions in projects presented to the Works Council, and 4 out of 10 consider that the risk of work-related accidents among their company’s employees is high.
