Companies are required to have an economic and workforce statistics database (“BDES”); for those with at least 300 employees the deadline for implementation was 14 June 2014, and for those with 50–300 employees the deadline was 14 June 2015.

The principle

Staff representative bodies, which encompass staff delegates, the Works Council, the Health, Safety and Working Conditions Committee and the trade union delegates, now have access to all the economic and workforce data that will enable them to understand the company’s situation, the management choices, and their consequences in various areas.
The items provided must be presented as statistics, or at least forecast statistics, in the form of broad trends.

Details must be provided on eight broad categories of information:

– workforce investment, investment in capital goods and investment in intangibles
– equity and debt
– compensation figures for employees and executives
– social and cultural activities
– compensation of funders
– financial flows directed to the company
– subcontracting
– as relevant, commercial and financial transfers among the group’s entities.

This information pertains to the two prior years and the year in progress, and includes forecasts for the coming three years. The kind of information provided varies according to the size of the company (dependent on the threshold of 300 employees).

By 31 December 2016 at the latest, the BDES containing all the information provided on a recurrent basis to the Works Council will count as disclosure of these documents.

Accessibility

The employer is required to update the BDES regularly, and it must be accessible to the staff representative bodies, depending on their clearances (for instance, some information that is intended for the Works Council is not necessarily intended for the staff delegates). Although there is no requirement to consult with the staff representative bodies before introducing the BDES, it is advisable to do so. This will enable you to ensure with the staff representative bodies the arrangements for providing the BDES, which must be accessible at all times. Although the law is silent on the matter, it would seem more appropriate to provide the database in computerised form rather than in paper form (leading to reduced data loss, easier updating and increased accessibility).

The penalties

If a company fails to introduce a BDES or does so only partially, the employer may be charged with criminal counts of dereliction of due process (“délit d’entrave”). The penalties for that can be as high as €3,750 in fines for each staff representative body concerned and one year of prison.

We are entirely available if you have any further queries about the issues discussed in this newsletter or about any other accounting, tax, social security or law related topic.