France: Minister wants agreed minimum wages to reflect smic increases

In October 2007, the minister of labour, Xavier Bertrand, called on the social partners to include in all sectoral collective agreements a “catch-up clause”, allowing them rapidly to bring their pay scales into line when the statutory national minimum wage, the smic, is increased.

Bertrand stated that he would in future take into account whether or not an agreement contains a catch-up clause when considering requests to “extend” the agreement.