Background information

The job protection plan (PSE) is a set of measures designed to limit the number of redundancies, in particular through redeployment measures. The PSE is a document which: brings together a set of measures intended to limit the number of redundancies and to promote the redeployment of employees whose redundancy is inevitable. It must be communicated to the public authority.

Content of measure

The purpose of the ‘Plan de Sauvegarde de l'Emploi’ (PSE) is to avoid redundancies or to limit the number of them. It provides a ‘reclassification plan’ to facilitate the redeployment of employees whose redundancy is inevitable, which must include a plan especially designed for older workers (50+) and those with social characteristics making their re-employment more difficult (impaired workers, workers with work-related health issues). The PSE includes:

• actions aimed at the internal redeployment of employees on jobs within the same job class or equivalent to those they hold;
• actions aimed at fostering the transfer of all or part of the existing activities in order to avoid the closure of one or more facilities;
• the creation of new activities by the company
• actions promoting the outplacement business;
• support actions for the creation of new businesses or the take over of existing businesses by employees;
• training actions, validation of acquired experience (VAE) or actions to facilitate internal or external redeployment of employees in equivalent jobs;
• reduction of measures on working time as well as volume reduction measures for overtime performed regularly.

Under this general framework, the PSE may provide various measures such as incentives for voluntary departure, or the establishment of a re-employment unit (cellule de reclassement). In case the employer is to set up an employment protection plan, he can ask, under certain and demanding conditions, for a public financial support to facilitate the redeployment of redundant employees.

The constitution of an employment protection plan is mandatory in companies with at least 50 employees if the dismissal project concerns at least 10 employees over a period of 30 days.

Use of measure

According to the DARES (2022), in an economic context marked by the COVID-19 health crisis, 610 job-saving plans (PSE) are being implemented in 2020 (after 490 in 2019). They concern 56,200 people in 2,770 establishments, half of which are in Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Hauts-de-France. These establishments are mainly located in two branches: metallurgy and steel industry as well as design offices and business services.

In 2020, of the 610 PSEs implemented, 47% were the result of the approval of a unilateral document drawn up by the employer, and 50% were the result of the validation of a majority agreement between the company and the trade unions. The remaining 3% were the result of a hybrid procedure.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment Workers in non-standard forms of employment	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Trade unions Employers' organisations Local / regional government	Employer European Funds National funds Regional funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Social partners on company-level may involved to negotiate the content of the PSE.

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 01 March 1997: Mallet, L., Tessier, F., Vicens, C. (1997), A quoi servent les plans sociaux ? Travail et emploi, n° 72. (travail-emploi.gouv.fr)
• 18 January 2002: Code du travail, Article L321-4-1 (www.legifrance.gouv.fr)
• 01 June 2005: Bruggeman, F. (2005), Plans sociaux : l'impossible accompagnement social des licenciements économiques ?. La Revue de l'Ires, 47,(1), 215-231. (www.ires.fr)
• 28 July 2006: Bobbio, M. (2006), Les plans de sauvegarde de l’emploi: accompagner les licenciés sans garantie d’un retour vers l’emploi stable, DARES (dares.travail-emploi.gouv.fr)
• 20 April 2021: Licenciement économique: plan de sauvegarde de l'emploi (PSE) (www.service-public.fr)
• 20 January 2022: Les dispositifs publics accompagnant les ruptures collectives de contrat de travail en 2020 (dares.travail-emploi.gouv.fr)
• 18 October 2022: Les dispositifs publics d’accompagnement des restructurations (dares.travail-emploi.gouv.fr)