In Part 1, this paper provides an overview of historical, legal, political and cultural factors which have shaped, to this day, the system of industrial relations in France. Drawing on the quantitative results of an on-line survey and on the qualitative analysis of a series of interviews with a sample of HR managers in France, Part 2 and 3 analyze how employers perceive Employee Representatives when it comes to social dialogue: eight factors impacting the quality of industrial relations are summarized. Building on this, Part 4 introduces eight suggestions to improve the quality of social dialogue in France.
