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On 23 June, the Pontoise district court handed down a judgment in the case brought by the Atos SE European Works Council and supported by five European trade unions, against the group’s management, which denounced the agreement establishing the Atos SE European Works Council and announced the creation of a special negotiating body to negotiate a new agreement (see IR Notes 163). The dispute concerned the interpretation of Article 23 para. 4 of the agreement, which states that if the agreement is denounced, negotiations must be initiated, and “until both parties have signed a new agreement, this agreement shall prevail”. The employee representatives believed that the council should remain in place until a new agreement was signed. However, the court’s view is that the disputed clause is not as clear-cut as it might appear. The court holds that this clause breaches the principle of “prohibition of perpetual contracts”, which is enshrined in French law. In point of fact, the provisions of the agreement “stipulate no terms other than that of a new agreement (…), thereby potentially removing the option of unilateral termination granted to each party (…), due to the other party’s refusal to sign a new agreement”. As this is a matter of interpretation of law, the court dealing with urgent applications [juge des référés] holds that there is no clear breach of public policy, and rejects the EWC’s application. The employee representatives were also calling for a “temporary council” to be set up, operating according to the subsidiary requirements of the directive on worker participation in the SE, until an agreement was reached. “This notion of a ‘temporary’ council enshrined in law does not feature – in those specific terms – in any of the legislation linked to the SE works council”, and the fact that this group does not have its own EWC while restructuring is under way, does not present a manifestly unlawful breach of public policy.
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