(5) They establish in agreement with the employers rules concerning the hiring of wage-earners and salaried employés and they have the right to oppose their discharge. In the respect to the former, the law specifies that the rules relative to hiring must contain no provision by virtue of which the hiring of a worker would be affected by his political, military, religious or union activities. When these rules permit it, the right of the Factory Workers Council, in so far as it concerns the hiring of a worker, is waived and it is the boss or his representative who thereafter decides in each particular case of hiring. But if the boss or his representative violates the rule of contract, the Council of Workers or the Council of Employés may raise a protest. If an agreement is not thereupon reached between the boss and the council, the difficulty is taken before the competent Arbitration Committee which decides finally. On the other hand, in regard to discharges, the law of February 9 gives to the discharged worker the right to appeal it to the Workers Council, and, if an agreement is not reached by this Council, to appeal to the Arbitration Committee in any of the following circumstances: (a) If the discharge is due to the fact that the worker is active in certain political, military, denominational or trade union matters or that he belongs or does not belong to this or that political, denominational, or labour organization; (b) if the discharge is without cause; (c) if the worker is discharged because he has refused to do any piece of work other than that agreed upon when he was hired; (d) if the discharge appears particularly severe, and justified neither by the attitude of the worker nor by the situation in the industry.
(B) Differences between Employers and Workers.
The Factory Workers Councils maintain harmony among the workers as well as between them and the employer, and insure the liberty of organization among the workers. They must help avoid all troubles or disorders that may make difficulties between the employers and the workers, and if such arise, they must abate the trouble as soon as possible.
It is not the part of the Factory Workers Councils to take sides in economic disputes in favour of this or that tendency. It is the organ of all the workers of any industry taken together, and it must permit any labour organization, no matter to what tendency it belongs, to enjoy all the rights and all the control to which it is entitled.
(C) The Well-Being of the Workers.
(1) The Factory Workers Councils must combat the dangers of occupational accidents and diseases.
(2) They must co-operate in the creation of pension funds, the building of workers’ homes, and other institutions of well-being in the factory.
Economic powers.—(1) The Factory Workers Council aids by its technical advice the employer in giving the factory as high an economic efficiency as possible, and co-operates in introducing in the factory new methods of work. This co-operation on the part of the Factory Workers Council assumes that the employer keeps it in touch with the condition in the industry and with the most important events in it. The Council may therefore demand that the employer supply the Factory Committee, or the Council with all the necessary information on the work and the condition of workers, and that he show the pay-rolls—for the purpose of checking up with the schedules agreed upon by collective contracts—and all other documents necessary for the supervision of the execution of collective agreements. This right of inspection is limited in two respects. On the one hand, the Factory Workers Council can only examine records on the economic aspects of the factory, thus excluding all political, union, militarist, denominational, scientific or other investigations on the part of the Councils. On the other hand, the law specifies that this right of examination must not be exercised in such a way that it jeopardizes secrets of the factory or commerce. The question remains as to what must be understood as a secret of the factory or of commerce; this must be settled by judicial decision. From the first moment commentators on the law of February 4th, held that business contracts, records of profits and loss, the schedules and pay-rolls, estimates of net cost, and the purchase price of raw material are not questions that the Factory Workers Councils are forbidden to investigate. In addition the employer must at least once every quarter furnish the Factory Workers Council with a report on the situation and the progress in general of the factory, on its output and on its prospective needs in the way of workers. Finally the Factory Council may demand that every year a balance sheet for the factory and a statement of profit and loss for the preceding year shall be submitted to the Factory Committee, or the Council, if there is no Factory Committee.
(2) In the factories that have Administrative Councils,[64] the wage-earners and salaried employés are represented on these councils by one or two delegates. This representation of workers on Administrative Councils has aroused among the employers the liveliest opposition. The Cabinet’s project provided that the worker representatives have the same rights and duties as the other members of the Administrative Councils. But the National Assembly has not followed the Cabinet on this point and has limited the power of the workers’ representatives in the Administrative Council to the mere statement of the interests and claims of the workers, and to the execution of their votes and wishes concerning the organization of the factory. In addition this representation must be regulated by a special law, and, until such a law is passed, that of February 4 confines itself to prescribing that the representatives of the workers have a seat and voice in all the meetings of the Administrative Council, but that they receive no remuneration other than the pay for the time of attendance at the meetings. They are obliged to keep confidential what they learn at the meetings of the Council. The underlying spirit intended for the workers’ representation in the Administrative Council is indicated as follows: “The granting of so extensive a power, changing the right of co-deliberation generally accorded to the working class into a right of codecision, is proposed in the conviction that nothing is better calculated to increase the love of work, the sentiment of responsibility and the output of industries than the right accorded to workers to co-operate under their own responsibility in the supreme direction of the factories.”