French Labour Code
In forceI.-Incentive agreements are concluded for a period of between one and five years, using one of the following methods:
1° By collective labour agreement ;
2° By agreement between the employer and the representatives of representative trade union organisations in the company;
3° By agreement reached within the social and economic committee;
4° Following ratification, by a two-thirds majority of the workforce, of a draft agreement proposed by the employer. Where the company has one or more representative trade union organisations or a social and economic committee, ratification is requested jointly by the employer and one or more of these organisations or this committee.
If none of the parties entitled to negotiate or ratify a profit-sharing agreement under the conditions provided for in this article requests renegotiation in the three months preceding the expiry date of the agreement, the latter is renewed by tacit agreement for a period equal to the initial period, if the original agreement provides for this possibility. The agreement may be renewed by tacit agreement more than once.
II - By way of derogation from I, where the company is not covered by an approved branch agreement, a profit-sharing scheme may be set up by unilateral decision, for a period of between one and five years, by :
1° The employer of a company with fewer than fifty employees and no trade union delegate or social and economic committee. He shall inform the employees by any means ;
2° The employer of a company with fewer than fifty employees if, at the end of negotiations undertaken on the basis of 1° or 3° of the same I, no agreement has been reached. In this case, an official statement of disagreement is drawn up, setting out the respective proposals of the parties in their final form. The Social and Economic Committee is consulted on the draft profit-sharing scheme at least fifteen days before it is submitted to the administrative authority.
The profit-sharing scheme set up unilaterally in application of this II is deemed to be a profit-sharing agreement within the meaning of I of this article and of 18° bis ofarticle 81 of the General Tax Code. The present title is applicable to this scheme, with the exception of articles L. 3312-6 and L. 3314-7 of the present code.
