Club Méditerranée signs international agreement
A ground-breaking transnational agreement on workers' rights and mobility has been concluded at Club Méditerranée, the French-based leisure and holiday villages group.
The accord was signed on 4 February 2004 by the company's head of human resources and two international trade union organisations - the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) and its European regional organisation, the European Federation of Trade Unions in Food, Agriculture and Tourism (EFFAT). During the negotiations, EFFAT also acted on behalf of the Club Méditerranée European Works Council (EWC) - known as the European Social Dialogue Committee (Comité Européen de Dialogue Social) - on which it is represented. Negotiations lasted over a year, and the issue was discussed at EWC meetings during this time.
The agreement covers basic rights at work and mobility for Club Méditerranée employees in the EU and other European and African countries in which it operates. Club Méditerranée has around 22,000 employees, the great majority of whom are seasonal workers.
Background
Club Méditerranée, which has operations worldwide, has a long history of contacts with trade unions at international level, and on issues relating to cross-border mobility within its operations. For example, in 1988, company management met IUF affiliates at the offices of the International Labour Office (ILO) to exchange views on the group's worldwide human resources policy. Furthermore, since the 1980s, French trade union organisations have discussed the social conditions for the transnational mobility within the group of certain Club Méditerranée employees from Morocco and Tunisia.
The agreement establishing the Club Méditerranée EWC was signed in 1996 by management, EFFAT's predecessor organisation (ECF-IUF) and trade union organisations in the various countries concerned. In June 2001, management and the EWC took the unusual step of negotiating a joint declaration on the employment conditions and standards to be observed where subcontractors are used, after the issue was raised by employee representatives on the EWC.
The context of the agreement signed in February 2004 was a recognition by the parties that the hotel, restaurants and tourism sector is faced with a persistent lack of qualified labour and with growing difficulties in organising worker mobility around the world. There is a perceived need to develop solutions to allow non-managerial service employees (known as "gentils employés", or GE, within Club Méditerranée) with the required experience and qualifications to hold employment in company facilities in countries other than their country of origin. This would take place where it satisfies the needs of the organisation and the wishes of the employee concerned, and provided that such arrangements do not endanger employment, working conditions, pay levels and other social conditions for employees in the host country. The agreement thus expresses the common wish of management and the trade unions to facilitate international mobility for Club Méditerranée seasonal GE service employees who are natives of countries outside the EU.
The agreement covers Club Méditerranée operations located in EU countries and in the following European and African countries where the group has operations: Croatia, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Senegal, Switzerland, Tunisia and Turkey. According to the IUF, it will explore with Club Méditerranée the possibility of expanding the scope of the agreement to the company's remaining operations worldwide, and has a written assurance from the company that it is not hostile to such an approach.
Fundamental rights
The first part of the agreement deals with "respect for fundamental rights at work" and covers the issues that have become standard in global workers' rights agreements in multinationals (International, Global agreements spread and International: Update on global agreements ). Thus, building on the principles set out in ILO Conventions, Club Méditerranée will:
respect the right of workers, in accordance with applicable legislation in each country, to form a trade union or to join the trade union of their choice;
not resort to methods designed to deter trade union membership, including anti-union meetings, "tracts", or verbal communications;
ensure that trade union representatives, elected or designated in accordance with applicable legislation in each country, and trade union members are not subject to any discrimination in employment, pay, working conditions, access to vocational training and career development by reason of their trade union membership or activity;
communicate to concerned trade union organisations the information required under applicable national legislation regarding the general operations of Club Méditerranée and, where required, the operations of the site concerned, to allow them to conduct collective bargaining in keeping with such legislation in their respective countries;
allow contact between trade union representatives and company employees, as provided for under applicable legislation, collective agreements and national or local practices;
not tolerate any form of forced or compulsory labour as a method of coercion or sanction against persons expressing political opinions, as a method of using labour for economic purposes, as a measure of work discipline, as a penalty for strike action, or as a form of discrimination based on race, social or national origin, or religious beliefs. The term "forced or compulsory labour" means any work or service required of an individual under threat of any sanction and for which the individual has not volunteered;
respect the effective elimination of child labour, with the minimum age for employment being set at 15 years of age regardless of local legislative provisions, or 18 years of age in the case of work activities liable to endanger the "health, safety or morality of youth";
respect the principle of equality of opportunities and treatment in employment, which means refraining from any discrimination, distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion or political opinions; and
ensure the application to all employees of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value between male and female employees.
In the event of difficulties or disputes, the employees concerned may refer the matter to the joint committee set up to oversee the application of the agreement (see below).
International mobility
The second part of the accord is more unusual, governing mobility of non-managerial (GE) service employees between countries. It expresses the parties' common wish to encourage voluntary international mobility for Club Méditerranée GE employees classified as seasonal employees, allowing those working in African and non-EU European countries to move to work in company resorts located in the EU (as seasonal employees). Such mobility is encouraged where Club Méditerranée is unable to hire the required labour locally. The employment conditions applicable to such employees, in terms of pay, working hours and working conditions, will not be lower, pro rata, than those applicable to employees already working in the operations concerned. These provisions also apply to room and board for GE employees.
Where GE service employees on open-ended contracts in their country of origin come to work in an EU country, this will be on the basis of secondment for the duration of the season, under normal employment conditions for employees of the villages concerned.
GE employees are to be given a minimum of 15 days' notice prior to the commencement of the proposed contract or secondment in an EU country. Employee representatives in these workers' resorts of origin are to be informed of the selection criteria and conditions of mobility for GE employees called on to move to work in EU countries.
Club Méditerranée has an existing scheme providing for seasonal migration to France by GE service personnel from its holiday villages located in Turkey. Club Méditerranée, with the support of the signatory trade union organisations, will now request the relevant governmental authorities to make it possible to renew this initiative. Under the scheme, on the basis of personnel needs and criteria established by Club Méditerranée management in France, the company obtains the authorisation required under French regulations for employees proposed by Club Méditerranée management in Turkey to come to work in France. Each season of such work is subject to the conclusion of a fixed-term seasonal employment contract respecting the provisions of French law, and to the employment and remuneration conditions resulting from the collective agreements and practices applicable to GE service personnel in the host resort concerned. The migrant employees receive coverage under French social security for the duration of their seasonal employment in France.
The new agreement provides that information and welcome meetings for the Turkish employees will be organised in France by Club Méditerranée, with the aim of providing a better knowledge of the host resort, its organisation, geography and the main services offered. Once per season, where Turkish migrant personnel are present, a half-day visit to France by a representative of EFFAT/IUF will be arranged by Club Méditerranée for the Turkish employees concerned, during which the social aspects of mobility will be discussed. These include the Club Méditerranée agreement on transnational mobility and European regulations, legislation and collective agreements applicable in the host village and country. The time spent by the EFFAT-designated representative on the implementation of the agreement's provisions in this area will be compensated by the company (on the basis of a fixed daily rate of €310). The details of payment of this compensation will be set by an agreement between management and the trade union organisations involved.
In the event that other mobility initiatives are decided upon, the parties have agreed to define jointly the appropriate measures to accompany them.
Follow-up
A special committee will oversee implementation of the agreement. This will be made up of two representatives of EFFAT and the IUF (including the EFFAT representative on the Club Méditerranée EWC) and two representatives designated by company management. The committee will meet once a year (though additional meetings may be held by request), at the time of the EWC meeting, to discuss economic and social developments at Club Méditerranée and joint mobility management planning. The committee is also responsible for reviewing the application of the agreement, including any difficulties or disputes, and discussing possible improvements. Costs are met by the company.
The agreement will run for three years, during which period any party may withdraw by giving three months' notice. Three months before the expiry of the three-year period, the parties will meet to review its application and negotiate a possible renewal.
The provisions of the new international agreement may in no circumstances be "substituted for provisions applicable in Club Méditerranée operations. The existence of this agreement cannot result in any restrictions whatsoever of the rights arising from legislation, regulations, collective bargaining agreements or local customs."
Comments
The Club Méditerranée agreement is an interesting combination of a "global agreement" on general workers' rights principles - as signed in approaching 40 other multinational companies so far - and a specific collective agreement dealing with a transnational human resources management problem that is very specific to this firm. The unusually "internationalised" nature of Club Méditerranée and its apparently positive relations with international trade union organisations appear to have combined with the pressing problem of labour shortages and cross-border mobility to create the necessary conditions for a pioneering experiment in transnational collective bargaining, which has few precedents elsewhere (Danone being one of the rare examples).
According to Kerstin Howald, secretary for the tourism sector at EFFAT: "At a time in which occupational mobility across borders is increasing in the hotel and restaurant sector in Europe because of the shortage of qualified workers, this innovative approach at Club Méditerranée shows the correct way of making the employment of workers from non-EU countries socially just through negotiations between European and international trade union confederations."
