Collective agreements in the public service: what are they?

Verified 22 October 2025 - Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Employers' administrations and trade unions may conclude collective agreements.

A collective agreement is a text negotiated between the employer administration and the trade unions. The two parties agree on the establishment of provisions that apply to public officials.

The collective agreement may be concluded at national, local or local level.

Employers' administrations

The national collective agreement may concern the three public functions (State, territorial, hospital) or a single public function.

When concluded at the local or local level, the collective agreement may concern a ministerial department or a decentralized department of the State or a local authority or a public hospital.

Negotiations on the three public functions are initiated at the national level and involve government representatives, in particular the Minister or the Secretary of State for the Public Service, representatives of territorial employers and representatives of public hospital employers.

Negotiations for a single civil service are initiated at the national level, under the leadership of the Government, and involve representatives of the civil service concerned.

Negotiations concerning a ministerial department are conducted by the minister concerned.

At the various levels of proximity, negotiations may be conducted, in the State civil service, for example by the prefect or by a director at a regional or interregional level (rector of academy, for example).

In territorial and hospital public functions, negotiations are conducted by the territorial authority or the head of establishment.

Trade union organizations

The trade union organizations competent to negotiate collective agreements are representative trade union organizations.

At national level, representative trade union organizations shall be those with at least one seat on the Joint Civil Service Council or on the Supreme Councils of the State, territorial or hospital civil service.

At local or local level, representative trade union organizations shall be those with at least one seat on the social committees.

FYI  

For local and regional authorities and their public establishments without a social committee, the reference social committee is that of the management center.

Changes in remuneration (in particular the value of the index point) may be subject to collective agreements exclusively at national level.

The following areas may be covered by collective agreements at national, local or local level :

  • Conditions and organization of work (preventive measures in the fields of health, safety and health at work in particular)
  • Working time, teleworking, quality of life at work, commuting conditions between home and work, impacts of digitalization on organization and working conditions
  • Social support for measures to reorganize services
  • Implementation of measures to combat climate change, preserve resources and the environment and promote the social responsibility of organizations
  • Professional equality between women and men
  • Promotion of equal opportunities, recognition of diversity and prevention of discrimination in access to employment and career management
  • Employment integration, job retention and career development of persons with disabilities
  • Career development and professional promotion
  • Learning
  • Vocational training and continuing education
  • Collective incentives and conditions for implementing compensation policies
  • Social action
  • Supplementary social protection
  • Evolution of occupations and forward-looking management of jobs and skills.

An agreement may include regulatory measures.

It may also contain clauses whereby the administration undertakes to take specific actions that do not require it to take regulatory measures.

Regulatory measures may not concern rules laid down by decree of the Council of State.

Nor may they modify or be contrary to rules laid down by decree in the Council of State.

Where an agreement contains clauses the implementation of which involves regulatory measures, the administration shall inform the trade union organizations of the timetable within which it envisages such measures.

Trade unions and public employers may also participate in negotiations on any other domain. In this case, the agreements may not include regulatory measures.

An agreement may aim to lay down the conditions for application at a lower territorial level of an existing agreement.

In this case, the application agreement can only clarify the original agreement or improve the general rules.

It must comply with the essential provisions.

An agreement shall provide for the timetable for its implementation and, where appropriate, its period of validity.

It also lays down the conditions for review by a monitoring committee of the measures it lays down and their conditions of application.

Advance framework agreements

Some framework agreements may be concluded to define the method applicable to the negotiations.

These framework agreements can be concluded jointly for the 3 public functions or for one of the 3 public functions.

They may also be concluded for a single ministerial department and public institutions under the supervision of that ministerial department.

The purpose of these framework agreements is to determine the conditions and possibly the timetable for negotiations.

Methodological agreements binding on the signatories may also be concluded prior to the commencement of negotiations on the areas referred to in those articles.

Method Agreements

Before the negotiation commences, method agreements may also be concluded.

Methodological agreements may provide for negotiation training for participants, subject to the terms and conditions set by the agreements.

Opening of negotiations

Trade union organizations may apply to open negotiations at national, local or local level if they have received in total at least 50% of the votes cast in the last professional elections.

The competent administrative or territorial authority at territorial level receiving the request shall acknowledge receipt of the request within 15 days.

It must propose a meeting to examine whether the conditions for opening negotiations are met within 2 months of the date of receipt of the request to open negotiations.

Within 15 days of the meeting, the administrative or territorial authority shall inform the trade union organizations of its response to the request.

Signature of the collective agreement

The signing of the agreement is subject to the prior approval of the Ministers responsible for the Budget and the Public Service when the agreement covers the following areas and includes regulatory measures:

  • Career development and professional promotion
  • Collective incentives and conditions for implementing compensation policies
  • Supplementary social protection.

Where the agreement relates to a matter within the jurisdiction of a collegial or deliberative body (e.g. a municipal council), it may enter into force only on one of the following conditions:

  • The collegial or deliberative body authorized the administrative or territorial authority to enter into negotiations and conclude the agreement
  • The agreement was approved by the collegiate or deliberative body after checking its validity.

A local authority or a public body which does not have a social committee may authorize the management center to negotiate and conclude an agreement.

The application of the agreement shall be subject to its approval by the territorial authority or the deliberative assembly.

Agreements are valid if they are signed by one or more trade union organizations representing at least 50% the votes cast in the last professional elections held at the level at which the agreement is negotiated.

Any agreement shall be published by the signatory administrative or territorial authority.

An agreement containing regulatory measures is published under the same conditions as the administrative acts to which it replaces (Official Journal, collection of administrative acts, etc.).

The authority signing the agreement shall send a copy of it to the Board of Governors responsible for the civil service concerned and to the Joint Civil Service Board, if it concerns at least two civil services.

An agreement shall enter into force on the day following its publication or at a later date to be fixed by it.

An agreement concluded by the director of a public hospital can only be published after verification of its compliance with laws and decrees in the Council of State by the Regional Health Agency (ARS).

The Director-General of the Regional Health Agency shall have two months from receipt of the agreement sent as an application to Article R. 226-1 to check compliance with the higher-level standards. This period may be extended by one month at his request when additional information is required. In the absence of a reply from the Director-General after these deadlines, the agreement may be published.

If the agreement does not comply with the higher level standards, the ARS shall inform the social committee of the institution concerned.

Published agreements shall be forwarded by the signatory authority to the Minister responsible for the public service, the Minister responsible for local and regional authorities or the Minister responsible for health with a view to making them available to all officials.

A monitoring committee shall be appointed for each agreement concluded. It shall be composed of members designated by the signatory trade union organizations and representatives of the competent administrative or territorial authority.

An agreement may be amended by a new agreement.

In the event of an exceptional situation, the administrative or territorial authority signing an agreement may, after 15 days' notice, suspend its application for a maximum period of 3 months, renewable once.

The administrative authority shall then inform the signatory trade union organizations of the reasons justifying the suspension and, where appropriate, its renewal.

An agreement may be revised at the initiative of the signatory administrative or territorial authority or of all or part of the trade union organizations representing at least 50% of the votes cast in the last professional elections.

An agreement of indefinite duration may be denounced in whole or in part by the signatory parties if the clauses of the agreement can no longer be applied.

If the agreement is denounced by one or more trade union organizations, they must represent at least 50% of the votes cast in the last professional elections.

The denunciation occurs after a notice of one month.