National Collective Bargaining Agreements (Conventions Collectives Nationales, CCN) play a central role in French employment law. They set out many rules that directly affect the organisation and running of your business: pay, leave, health and death and disability cover, training and more. Let us take stock of how your National Collective Bargaining Agreement works in practice.
What is a National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCN)?
A National Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCN) is an agreement negotiated between one or more employee trade unions and a group of employers. This agreement sets out a body of rules governing employees’ working conditions: days of leave, organisation of working time, levels of group health insurance and death and disability cover, job classifications, minimum wages, training, conditions for terminating the employment contract and so on.
A CCN therefore brings together common rules applicable to all the companies that fall under it. The vast majority of business sectors, and the companies attached to them, are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, regardless of the number of employees, and all employees bound by an employment contract (permanent or fixed-term, including during the probationary period) are concerned. Each company is attached to a CCN according to its main activity and/or its geographical location.
Good to know: a collective bargaining agreement can only be more favourable than the Labour Code, never less.
The IDCC code
Your CCN’s identity card
Each National Collective Bargaining Agreement is assigned a unique number: the IDCC identifier (Identifiant De la Convention Collective). This is a 1 to 4 digit number assigned by the Ministry of Labour to each collective bargaining agreement. This code is stable over time: even if the agreement is revised through successive amendments, the IDCC remains the same.
It should not be confused with the brochure number (which starts with 3): the IDCC code remains the permanent reference for identifying an agreement text, whereas the brochure number may change.
Since 2016, stating the applicable collective bargaining agreement has been mandatory on the payslip. This is often the easiest way to find your CCN: look for a line such as “Collective bargaining agreement: … — IDCC XXXX” on your payslips.
How to determine your National Collective Bargaining Agreement?
When you set up your company in France, INSEE assigns you a NAF / APE code. This element helps you identify the CCN to apply to your business. To determine it correctly, ask yourself: what is my main activity? This is generally the activity that generates the most turnover and/or accounts for the largest share of the payroll.
If the company carries out several activities, it is the IDCC code corresponding to the main activity (by number of employees or by turnover) that must be declared.
To identify your agreement from your company name, your SIRET or your APE code, you can use the official search tool provided by Service-Public.fr.
How to access the agreement linked to your CCN?
When applying your CCN, in particular to choose your group health insurance contract, you need to study the signed agreement in detail. Go to the Legifrance website and run a search by IDCC: this gives you access to the full text of your agreement and its amendments.
To take out group health insurance and find the best offer meeting your CCN’s criteria, you can also call on the brokerage firm MIA Assurances: our reviews are free and non-binding.
Why work with MIA Assurances?
Decoding your National Collective Bargaining Agreement and translating its obligations into suitable contracts (health, death and disability, pension) takes time and genuine regulatory expertise. A misreading can prove costly: under-coverage of employees, non-compliance with the agreement’s requirements, or poorly calibrated contributions.
This is precisely the role of MIA Assurances. As a specialist insurance broker in social protection, we support companies, whether VSEs, SMEs, mid-cap companies or foreign companies established in France, in bringing their benefits into line with their CCN. Our team analyses your agreement, compares offers on the market and negotiates on your behalf the contracts best suited to your obligations and your budget.
Our approach: personalised support, free and non-binding, from the initial assessment through to the ongoing management of your contracts. Contact us to discuss your situation, or request your free review today.
