INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
OFFICE
GENEVA
—

Studies and Reports
Series G.
No. 5.

21 February 1921.

The Organisation of Unemployment Insurance
and Employment Exchanges in France

CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION
T H E NATIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT F U N D

1
3

State subsidies to Workers' Unemployment Funds
Communal and Departmental Funds
Funds for " Temporary " or Partial Unemployment

3
4
7

T H E ORGANISATION OF EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES

Departmental Employment Exchanges
Vocational Specialization in Employment Exchanges
Inter-regional Employment Exchange operations
Kecruiting of Foreign Labour

. . . .

13
14
10
18

Introduction.
Before the war unemployment was not very acute in
France, and this sufficiently explains the backwardness of
the organisation of unemployment insurance in that country.
In 1913 1 117 unemployment funds, with about 50,000
members, were in receipt of subsidies from the State
proportionate to the amount of the benefits which they paid
to their unemployed members. In the year 1913 these
benefits amounted to 233,482 frs., and the amount of the
State subsidies was 55,445 frs. Some twelve Departments
and fifty-one municipalities also granted subsidies, the total
amount of which, in the year 1911, was 96,834 frs. As will
be seen, the figures were small.
A certain number of communes also organised relief
works for the unemployed. In 1913 this was the case with
396 communes, which .had expended 812",276 frs., of which
715,107 frs. was paid in wages, in order to give 18,913
unemployed persons 295,991 days' work. These unemployed
1

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"OF.

Report on Unemployment prepared by the Organising Committee of
neton Conference.

lUllllllllllllllllll

— 2 —

were principally agricultural workers, day labourers, or
woodmen, and it appears that these relief works were organised
chiefly to remedy unemployment in agriculture at those
seasons in which work in the fields ceases, during periods
of hail, drought or flood, after the vintage, or at the end of
the sugar season. 2
The organisation of public employment exchanges left
much to be desired. The law of the 14th March, 1904,
which has since become Part 4 of Book 1 of the Code of Labour,
imposed on all communes of more than 10,000 inhabitants the
obligation of establishing free employment exchanges. This
law had very little effect ; most of the communes concerned
failed to vote the credits necessary for the application of the
law. In 1911 the Government endeavoured to encourage
the communes by granting subsidies to the municipal
employment exchanges under joint control, but in 1913
there were still only 27 communes, out of 260 numbering
more than 10,000 inhabitants, which fulfilled the conditions
requisite for receiving these subsidies.
The insufficiency of permanent institutions for dealing
with unemployment and for the organisation of the labour
market made itself felt very acutely at the commencement
of the war.
Within a day or 'two of the general mobilisation of the
Army, the unemployed numbered hundreds of thousands
— even millions. A great many industrial undertakings
were completely disorganised as a result of the departure
of the majority of their male staff, and were unable to find
employment for those who remained. Others soon found
themselves deprived of coal or raw materials as a result of
the requisitioning of the means of transport by the military
authorities. The luxury trades, which are of so much
importance in France and especially in Paris, were affected
by an instantaneous and considerable diminution in
consumption. All business was hampered by the delay in
postal communications and by exceptional financial measures,
such as the postponement of payments and the immobilisation
of bank deposits.
The multitude of unemployed in Paris and the Departments
of the South, the Centre and the West was soon increased
by the stream of refugees from the invaded Departments and
from Belgium. I t became necessary to improvise relief and
employment exchange services. The former, notwithstanding
their temporary character, have not yet ceased to exist. The
latter now constitute a very complete system of public
institutions, efficiently contributing to the organisation of
the French labour market. I t is with these two classes of
institutions that the present study is concerned.
s

Bulletin du Ministère du Travail, November-December 1915.

— 3 —

The National Unemployment Fund.
On the 20th August, 1914, the Government established
a National Unemployment Fund. This fund had a threefold object :—
1. To grant special subsidies to trade-union or mutual
unemployment insurance funds ;
2. To assist the communal or departmental unemployment
funds (relief institutions which the Government requested
the communes - and Departments to organise forthwith) by
repaying these authorities 33 % of the amount of allowances
distributed by them to unemployed persons, under certain
conditions fixed by the Government.
3. To facilitate the repatriation of the unemployed or
their transfer to localities where work would be offered to
them.
State subsidies to Workers' unemployment

Funds.

These subsidies had been regulated before the war by a
decree of the 9th September, 1905. 8 They were calculated
at the rate of 20 % of the benefits paid, or 30 % for the most
important funds, that is to say, those operating in more than
three Departments and numbering more than one thousand
members. Benefits exceeding 2 frs. per day, or extending
for more than 60 days in the year, were not taken into account.
This system was maintained during the war, but various
facilities were granted to the funds for the payment of the
subsidies to which they were entitled or to which they might
have been entitled in normal circumstances. 4 These subsidies,
which had amounted to 55,445 frs. in 1913, rose to 95,965 frs.
in 1914 6, and fell again to 30,022 frs. in 1915. °
After the Armistice the temporary modifications of the
pre-war system were abolished by a decree of the 27th
November, 1919, but the rate of the benefits to be taken into
account for the calculation of subsidies was raised from 2 frs.
to 3.50 frs. per day, by a decree of the 21st March, 1919.
Will this slight improvement, — which, in fact, is no
improvement, since the increase does not even correspond to
the decrease in the relative value of money, — be sufficient
to encourage the French trade unions to organise
unemployment insurance on a large scale ? Experience up
to the present compels one to doubt it.
3

Modified by decrees of tlie 20th April, 1906 ; 31st December, 1900 ;
3rd December, 1908 ; and 28th December, 1912.
* Decrees of the 25th August, 1914 ; 9th February, 1915 ; and. 30th
June, 1915.
5
Bulletin du Ministère du Travail, March-April-May, 1916.
'Bulletin
du Ministère du Travail, January-February-March, 1917.
The figures relating to the subsequent years have not been published.

— 4 —

Communal and Departmental

Unemployment

Funds.

The system of subsidies granted by the national
Unemployment Fund to the communal and Departmental
unemployment funds was established by a decree of the
24th November, 1914, modified on the 9th January, 1915.
Under the terms of this regulation the National
Unemployment Fund was bound to grant to communes of at
least 5,000 inhabitants, which gave relief to the unemployed,
a subsidy equal to 33 % 7 of the amount of such relief. Such
relief, however, was only to be taken into account in the
calculation of the State subsidy up to the amount of 1.25 frs.
per day, with an additional benefit of fifty centimes per day
for every dependent of the beneficiary. 8
For the unemployed in communes of less than 5,000
inhabitants, the constitution of Departmental unemployment
funds was recommended, to which subsidies would be granted
under the same conditions. The regulations of the communal
and Departmental unemployment funds Avere subject to
approval by the Ministry of Labour.
This organisation immediately assumed large dimensions,
especially in Paris and its environs. In 1914 fifty-six
communes had organised unemployment funds, and the relief
distributed amounted for the year to 35,500,000 frs. in Paris
and 8,200,000 frs. in the other communes. 9
In Paris the number of unemployed in receipt of relief was
in August 168,000; it reached its maximum in October, when
it was 293,000 (135,000 men and 158,000 women). From
that time it diminished continuously until the Armistice.
I t was 278,000 in November, 1914; 93,000 in November, 1915;
39,000 in November, 1916; 16,000 in November, 1917; and
9,000 in November, 1918. It was then no more than a
residuum of poor people who were not idle from want of
work, but incapable, through sickness, infirmity, or wounds,
of following any occupation. 10
7
A decree of the 26th January, 1919, raised the rate, of the State subsidy
to 75 % for a period of ten months. At the expiration of these ten months
the rate of the subsidy was reduced to 50 % for the peiiod from the 16th
November, 1919, to the 15th March, 1920, and to 33% on and after the last
named date (decree of the 17th October, 1919).
8
A decree of the 19th April, 1918, raised these amounts to 1.50 frs.
per day for every unemployed person at the head of a family, and to 0.75 fr.
or 1 fr. for dependents, with a maximum of 4 frs. per day for any one
household.
A decree of the 14th January, 1919, further increased these amounts
to 2.25 frs per day for every unemployed person at the head of a family,
and to 6 frs. maximum for any one household.
The decree of the 19th April, 1918, further allows the payment of relief
for non-working days.
9
Bulletin du Ministère du Travail, January-April, 1915.
,0
L'office départemental du placement et de la statistique de la Seine ; son
action et ses travaux du 1er novembre 1915 au 30 octobre 1918. Report by
Messrs Sellier and Deslandres to the General Council of the Seine.

The unemployment which marked the beginning of the
war diminished in the same manner in the Departments and
gave place to intense industrial activity.
Hardly any
unemployment funds remained at the beginning of 1918,
except in Paris, in certain communes in the environs of Paris,
and in two or three large provincial towns. However, a
circular of the Minister of Labour, dated the 23rd January,
1918, drew attention to the danger of unemployment in certain
industries as a result of the restrictions on consumption
imposed by the Government and in certain others as a result
of the difficulties of obtaining coal and raw materials. The
same circular invited the municipalities of the industrial
communes to prepare for the reconstitution of the
unemployment funds so as to be ready for any eventuality.
This precaution proved to be justified after the Armistice,
when unemployment assumed serious proportions.
The
Paris unemployment fund had to relieve 11 11,000 unemployed
in December, 1918; 12,000 in January, 1919; 54,000
in February; 77,000 at the end of March and the commencement of April. At that period the number of unemployed
in receipt of relief in the whole country reached 116,000.
That was the maximum; subsequently the curve descended
rapidly, until it showed only 1,600 unemployed in Paris at
the end of December, 1919, and an average of 225 for the first
seven months of 1920. 13
The communal and Departmental unemployment funds
were intended by the Government to be exceptional and
temporary institutions. They are so described in a municipal
circular of the 20th April, 1918. Another circular of the 25th
October, 1919, adds : " the interests of the communal and
Departmental finances, properly understood, demand that
all measures should be taken with a view to the progressive
liquidation of the municipal and departmental unemployment f u n d s " ; and the first article of the specimen
rules recommended by the Ministry of Labour is to this effect.13
" The municipal unemployment fund is a purely temporary
institution, intended only to meet the consequences of
unemployment arising from the state of war and from
demobilisation. It will disappear with the circumstances
which gave it birth. "
However that may be, the unemployment funds have not
yet ceased to exist, and the instability of the labour market
helps to keep them in existence.
In October, 1920,
unemployment again became serious. Mr. Jourdain, the
Minister of Labour, pointed out in a note to the Press 14 that,
in anticipation of this crisis, he had, in June 1920, given
11

Bulletin du
Bulletin du
" Bulletin du
" Le Temps,
,ä

Ministère du Travail, 1919.
3Iinistère du Travail, -May-July, 1920.
Ministère du Travail, January-March, 1919.
24th October, 1920.

— 6 —
instructions for the creation or reconstitution of the
Departmental and municipal unemployment funds; so that
these institutions, originally " provisional " in character,
appear, after all, to be fairly permanent.
The Labour Market Bulletin {Bulletin du Marché (ho Travail)
of the 20th November, 1920, states that on the 13th of that
month two Departmental and twenty-nine municipal funds
were in operation and were relieving 2,700 unemployed,
1,500 of them in the Department of the Seine. If these
figures are compared with the evidence supplied by the Press
of the amount of unemployment prevailing at that moment
in the motorcar industry in the Department of the Seine, it
will be clear that many unemployed persons do not claim
the allowances to which they are entitled.
This was
remarked by Mr. Jourdain in the note quoted above, in which
he said : " It is a fact very much to the credit of the French
workman that he does not have recourse to relief until the
last extremity, when all his efforts to find work have failed
and his savings are exhausted. I t is not until a certain
time after the commencement of unemployment that the
workers resign themselves to soliciting unemployment
assistance. " ]5
At the same time, however, the newspaper La Bataille, i e
the semi-official organ of the General Confederation of Labour,
intimated that the repugnance of the workers to apply to the
unemployment funds was due to the fact that, for bureaucratic
reasons, the administration of these funds was entrusted to
the poor-relief offices, application to which was generally
looked upon in normal times as a disgrace. The same
newspaper, in the course of a campaign. to induce the
unemployed to make use of the funds, pointed out to them
that the allowances which they might obtain from these funds
Avere not a charity, but represented a right which the
administration had recognised.
Notwithstanding their administrative connection with
the jpoor-relief offices, a connection not contemplated by the
decrees, but simply happening to exist, particularly in Paris,
the unemployment funds, in their intention, approximate
closely to a social insurance institution. The circular of the
20th August, 1914, issued by the Prime Minister, Mr. Viviani,
indicated this in the following terms, after pointing out the
insufficiency of the trade-union and mutual unemployment
funds :—
" It is none the less desirable that relief of unemployed
15
" Unemployment continued to increase, and the number of
unemployed in receipt of relief from municipal or departmental unemployment funds amounted on the 22nd January 1921 to 34,175, of which
28,099 were in the Department of the Seine. " Bulletin du marché du travail, January 27th, 1921.
'" See especially the issues of October 11th and 16th, 1920.

— 7 —

workers should, as far as possible, he organised under
conditions deriving their inspiration from the working of
these unemployment funds. It is with this object that we
are now constituting, with the help of the financial resources
of the State, the National Unemployment Fund. "
An examination of the regulations of municipal and
Departmental Unemployment Funds will show that this
governing idea was largely followed. 17 The Commission
which has to decide on the admission and exclusion of
beneficiaries of the Unemployment Funds is composed not
only of representatives of the public authority, but also of
representatives in equal numbers of employers and workers,
chosen preferably from the officials of tiade associations or
the members of Conseils de prud'hommes. It may be, and
it is recommended that it should be, identical with the joint
committee of the Departmental or Municipal Employment
Exchange. The unemployed in receipt of relief are bound
to accept the employment offered to them by the public
employment exchanges, in the absence of objections recognised
as valid by the Committee. In these circumstances it seems
clear that a few reforms would be sufficient to engage effectively
the interest of the trade unions in the working of the municipal
and Departmental Unemployment Funds, and to convert
these provisional institutions into permanent unemployment
insurance institutions approximating to the type advocated
by Mr. Edouard Vaillant in a legislative proposal which he
has repeatedly brought forward, and which he referred to
again in a report on unemployment to the International
Socialist Congress of 1914, namely, " an institution for social
insurance against all the risks of life and labour: unemployment,
accidents, sickness, incapacity, infirmity, old age etc. without
contributions by the workers, and administered in complete
independence by the association of the insured ".
Funds for " temporary " or partial

unemployment.

The " temporary " unemployment here contemplated is
the unemployment resulting from lack of coal or raw materials.
I t has this characteristic in common with partial
unemployment, that the peison concerned is without work
but not without employment. He is assured of resuming
work as soon as the undertaking receives the coal or the
materials which it lacks for the moment. His contract of
service is not rescinded.
In the case of idleness for Avant of employment, in which
the contract of service is rescinded, one of the principal
functions of the unemployment insurance institutions is to
find neAV places for the unemployed, which may result in
their permanently leaving the undertaking in which they
Bulletin du Ministère du Travail, January-March, 1919.

— 8 —

were previously employed, and sometimes in their changing
their place of residence or their occupation. In the case of
temporary idleness for want of work, however, it may be
greatly to the interest of the employer that the unemployed
workers should remain on the spot and be available for the
resumption of their work as soon as the circumstances which
have interrupted the activity of the undertaking have ceased
to exist. Unemployment of this nature demands, therefore,
either a special insurance institution, or special rules for the
operation of the general unemployment insurance institutions.
I t implies in particular a pecuniary contribution from the
employers sufficiently large to justify the non-rescission of
the contract of service and the maintenance of the workers
at the disposal of the employers, without prejudice to the
smaller contribution which may be required from the
employers for the general operation of insurance against
idleness for want of employment.
This principle was first recognised in France by the Minister
of Munitions, who, in a circular of the 4th February 1918 18
announced his decision to introduce thenceforward,
and
retrospectively as from the 1st January 1918, in all contracts
for war supplies, a clause guaranteeing a minimum wage to
workers partially unemployed as a result of difficulties in
the supply of raw materials or coal to the factories or
workshops concerned.
In view of the important principles enunciated in this
circular, the following passages are reproduced.
By virtue of the said clause, whenever, as the result of stoppage or
serious delay in the working of any public service (delay in transport, non
deh very of materials to be furnished by the State, etc. ) work in any factory
or workshop taking part in the execution of any contract entered into with
the Ministry of Munitions shall be interrupted or reduced to less than the
normal working hours, the contractor and his sub-contractors (if any)
shall guarantee an unemployment allowance to the staff of workers which
the Minister of Munitions shall deem it proper to maintain in such factory
or workshop.
At the end of every period of fourteen days the amount of the basic
wage for each grade of male or female workers, calculated at eight hours
and one-half per day, shall be multiplied by the number of working days
during which the male or female worker has worked or has remained without
work at the disposal of his employer. Whenever the product thus obtained
shall be greater than the actual earnings (including all bonuses, premiums,
allowances etc.) of the male or female worker during the ' said 14 days,
the contractor or sub-contractor, as the case may be, shall pay to the said
male or female worker the difference between such amounts by way of
unemployment allowance. Provided always that in any factory or workshop
in which by virtue of an agreement between the employer and the workers
working regulations have been established providing for a normal working
day of less than 8 hours and one-half no unemployment allowance shall be
payable unless the effective working hours shall fall below such normal
working day.
The cost of the said allowance shall be borne partly by the State and
partly by the Employer in a proportion to be fixed by the contract.
18

Bulletin dti Ministère du Travail, June-July, 1918.

— 9 —
Every Employer shall, in case of unemployment, endeavour to obtain
other work for his workers, including work not connected with national
defence, guaranteeing to the said workers a fair remuneration approved
by the Works Section. Such remuneration shall be deemed to form part
of the actual earnings previously referred to in calculating the unemployment
allowance. Ko worker shall be entitled to unemployment allowance if lie
has refused to accept the work so offered to him, even though such work
is carried on in the open air instead of in a factory or workshop.
Every .employer shall be entitled to engage and discharge his civilian
workers in accordance with the requirements of his undertaking, provided
always that, so long as he retains mobilised workers at his disposal, he shall
not be entitled to dismiss any civilian worker by reason of any such
deficiency of work as is contemplated in these provisions, without previously
ascertaining in agreement with the Controller of Military Labour how far
such reduction of staff can be obtained by reduction of the number of
mobilised workers of the same industrial category. If he shall still be
under the necessity of dismissing part of his civilian workers, he shall for
preference dismiss workers drawn from rural districts or who before the
war were engaged in agricultural pursuits, and unmarried men in preference
to heads of families.

Briefly, these provisions guaranteed to the employees
of undertakings Avhich had entered into a contract Avith the
Minister of Munitions :—
1) A minimum Avage, even in the event of their becoming
partially or totally unemployed for want of work
without rescission of the contract of service;2) Their maintenance in employment, notAvithstanding
cessation of work due to lack of coal or raw
materials, except in the case of dismissal authorised
by the Minister of Munitions when he had placed
military labour at the disposal of the employer.
The unemployment allowance so provided, equal to the
difference between the wages actually earned and the minimum
wage, Avas borne partly by the State and partly by the
Employer in a proportion fixed by the contract.
The results of .the application of these interesting measures
are not known.
Similar measures were taken shortly afterwards by the
Ministry of Labour, and are still in force. In order to encourage
employers to pay unemployment allowance to their workers
in case of partial or total unemployment for lack of coal
or raAv materials Avithout rescission of the contract of service,
Article 8 of the Decree of the 19th. Aprü 1918 10 provided
as follows :—
Departmental Funds may be established for the relief of partial
unemployment due to stoppages in the supply of raw materials or coal to
industrial establishments. Such funds shall pay to every worker remaining
in the employment of the undertaking affected a fixed allowance of 3 francs
for every day of complete unemployment in the case of adult workers, and
2 francs for every such day in the case of workers under 16 years of age,
but so that such 80allowance shall in no case exceed 50 per cent, of the normal
current wages.
19
Bulletin du, Ministère du Travail, March-May, 1918.
,0
The allowances of 2 francs and 3 francs per day were raised to 4.50
and 3 francs respectively by the decree of the 17th October 1919.

— 10 —
The funds for relief of partial unemployment shall be entitled to the
State subsidy provided for by Article 5 " but calculated on the amount of
the money allowances within the limits fixed by the preceding paragraph,
subject to the condition that the employers shall contribute, to the extent
of one-third at least, to the expenses incurred by reason of the relief allowed
to their employees '", and that in all other respects the regulations of the
said funds snail be in conformity with a type determined by a joint decision
of the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare and the Minister of Finance.

Unlike the system established for war industries by the
Minister of Munitions, which guaranteed to partially or
temporarily unemployed workers their basic Avage, the system
of the Departmental Relief Funds only ensures them an
allowance equal to hot more than one-half of the normal wage.
On the other hand, the principle of insurance plays a larger
part in the latter system than in the former, since in the
former case each employer personally assumed responsibility
for the risk of unemployment conjointly with the State;
while under the system fostered by the Minister of Labour a
real insurance fund is established among the employers in the
same department. Membership of this fund is, moreover,
optional. The object of the institution is 23
" To reimburse, wholly or in part, the owner of any
undertaking affected by partial unemployment
arising from the above-mentioned circumstances
for the allowances paid by him to his employees,
subject to the express condition that they shall
not be lower than the minimum amounts specified
in article 4. of these presents ". 2i
Between the two texts just quoted — that of the Decree of
the 19th April 1918 and that of the model Rules recommended
by the Ministry of Labour for the application of this Decree —
there is an appreciable shade of difference. Whereas the
Decree assigns to the Departmental Funds the function of
paying allowances to the persons unemployed, the model Rules
define their object as the reimbursement of employers for the
allowances paid by them to their workers. It is clear that
2
' This subsidy, which was fixed in the first place at 33 % of the
allowances paid, was raised to 60 % as from the 1st February 1919
until the 15th November 1919 by the Decree of the 26 January 1919.
I t was reduced by the Decree of the 17th October 1919 to 40 % from the
16th November 1919 to 15th March 1920 ; and to 3 3 % on and after the
15th March 1920.
22
The compulsory minimum contribution of the employers was reduced
to 20 % of the expenses from the 1st February 1919 to 15th November 1919
and raised to 30 % from the 16th November 1919 to the 15th March 1920
and to 33 % on and after the 16th March 1920. (Decrees of 26th January
1919 and 17th October 1919.)
23
See the " Model Eides of a Departmental Fund for the Belief of
Partial Unemployment due to Lack of Raw Materials or Coal ", in the
Bulletin du Ministère du Travail, March-May 1918.
24
These minimum amounts are those quoted above from the Decree.

— l i the second formula maintains a much closer bond than
the first betAveen the temporarily unemployed worker and his
•employer, and that it makes the value of the institution much
more comprehensible to the employer.
Each Departmental r o n d may be divided into sections
corresponding to the various industries concerned.
The Departmental form has been adopted because in many
cases industrial undertakings are in an isolated position
in rural communes whose revenues are insufficient to meet
-expenses for unemployment relief. I t is therefore for the
Departmental Authority to take the initiative in the
•organisation and to control the administration of the funds.
I t can of course request the financial assistance of the
communes interested.
What the State demands as a
condition of assuming responsibility for one-third of the
expense is that the employers should agree among themselves
to bear at least another third. The fund cannot come into
operation, therefore, unless the Department and the
communes take upon themselves the remaining one-third, or,
where this last condition is not completely fulfilled, the
employers increase their contribution to the extent necessary
to make up the difference.
The registration of partially or temporarily unemployed
persons is secured in the same manner as in the Trade Union
Unemployment Insurance Funds.
The unemployed are
required to attend on days and at hours and places indicated
by the Fund for the purpose of signing their names in a register.
They are entered by their employer at the Departmental
employment exchange, and at the Municipal employment
exchange of the commune (if any). These employment
exchanges endeavour to procure them work during the period
of temporary unemployment. In the event of an unemployed
person refusing temporary employment suitable to his physical
capacity and remunerated normally, he ceases to be entitled
to the allowance, and the fund ceases to pay to the employer
its contributory part.
Every beneficiary who finds other employment bringing
in nine francs a day in the case of adults or six francs a day
in the case of young persons under 16 years of age is struck
off the register for unemployment allowance. 25 In the case
of wages under the above amounts the allowance to a worker
finding remunerative employment is reduced by an amount
equal to one-half of the wages earned.
Unemployment allowances are paid every pay-day together
Avith the Avages due on such day. The days of unemployment
are reckoned separately in a special marginal statement
liable to production by the workers to the employers'
" Joint Decree of the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Finance
o£ the 14th March 1920. The figures originally fixed in 1918 were six and
four francs per day respectively.

— 12 —
associations and to the administrative authority.
The
statements of payment of the unemployment allowances are
collected by the employers' associations concerned, and
forwarded every month to the Prefect for use as the basis
of calculation of the State subsidy.
Such are the measures taken by the French Government.
It is unfortunately impossible to indicate the results of the
system, as no report has yet been published on the actual
Avorking of the Departmental Unemployment Funds.
The Organisation of Employment Exchanges.
The organisation of Public Employment Exchanges was
practically non-existent in France in 1914.. A very active
propaganda in favour of its development had been carried on
by the French section of the International Association for
Combating Unemployment, which was destined to bear fruit
during the war under the energetic initiative of the Ministry
of Labour. In 1913, the subsidies granted by the Government
to Municipal Employment Exchanges under joint control only
extended to 27 Communes in the whole of the country, and
these Exchanges had filled 29,000 vacancies. 2,}
An organisation so weak and so localised could do very
little for the re-establishment of a completely disorganised
labour market. lt Mobilisation ", says a circular of the
Ministry of Labour of the 29th December, 1915, " by provokingthe stoppage, momentarily at least, of more than half the
industrial and commercial undertakings of the country, had
thrown more than 2,000,000 workers out of employment,
and to these had been added nearly a million persons driven
from the invaded Departments and from Belgium.
" In the presence of such a situation ", added the circular r
" the absence of an organisation of Public Employment
Exchanges similar to that which had been established in
England by the Act of 1909 was keenly felt. Without doubt,.
as activity revived, as industrial and commercial undertakings
re-opened, and as agriculture resumed its operations, the
number of these unemployed persons diminished considerably,.
but it is beyond question that it would have diminished more
quickly and at less cost if local (Departmental and Municipal)
Employment Exchanges in full operation had existed ".
To meet this situation the Government improvised, on
the 26th October, 1914, a Central Employment Exchange
for unemployed workers and refugees. It was attached, in
the first place, to the Ministry of the Interior and was shortly
afterwards transferred to the Ministry of Labour.
It
instructed the Prefects to prepare vocational lists of the refugees
and applied to the great employers' organisations with a
26
Report on Subsidies to Free Municipal Employment Exchanges for
the years 1915-1919. Bulletin du Ministère du Travail, May-July, 1920.

— 13 —
view to ascertaining their labour requirements.
The
transfer of unemployed persons and refugees to the localities
where they had the best chances of finding employment was
facilitated by transport passes either free or at reduced rates 27 .
Up to the 3Ìst October, 1916, the Central Exchange had filled
about 60,000 vacancies, and more than half these cases involved
the transport of the worker from one place to another. The
conclusion to be drawn from these figures is that the immense
majority of the unemployed workers and refugees found places
by their own exertions.
It is obvious that a Central Employment Exchange could
not by itself supply the lack of local Exchanges. Moreover,
the Central Exchange limited itself more and more to its
natural function as an organ of co-ordination between the
Departmental Employment Exchanges which began to
multiply and develop.
Departmental Employment

Exchanges.

While appealing, as a matter of principle, so to speak, to
the Law of 1904, which had rendered it obligatory for
Communes of more than 10,000 inhabitants to establish
a Municipal Employment Exchange, the Ministry of Labour
turned to the Departmental authorities and requested them
to undertake the organisation of a regular system of Public
Employment Exchanges. 2S A Decree of the 12th March, 1916,
provided that the Departmental Exchanges should have
the same right as the Municipal Exchanges to subsidies from
the State. 39
These measures were crowned with success. At the
present time 30 all the Departments, with two or three
exceptions, have organised Labour Exchanges. These
Exchanges have, for the most part, absorbed or taken
under strict control the Municipal Employment Exchanges
previously existing, and have thus brought about unity in
the organisation of the labour market. In the frequent cases
in which the Departmental Exchange is incorporated with
the Municipal Exchange of the chief town of the Department,
the credits allocated by the Commune to the Municipal
Exchange have been transferred to the Departmental Exchange.
A great many other Communes give financial assistance to the
Departmental Exchanges.
" Circular of the Prime Minister of the 20th August, 1914. Circular
of the Ministry of Labour of the 28th October, 1915.
58
Circular of the Ministry of Labour of the 29th December 1915.
" The amount of these subsidies ranges from 20 per cent, of the expenses
for the smaller Exchanges, filling on an average 25-50 vacancies per month,
up to 40 per cent, of the expenses for the larger offices, filling on an average
more than 500 vacancies per month.
'"Bulletin du Ministère du Travail, May-July, 1920.

— 14 —
On the 1st May, 1920, the annual credits voted by Municipal
and Departmental Assemblies in favour of Public Employment
Exchanges amounted to about 3,000,000 francs. They were
about 1,550,000 francs at the beginning of 1919, 864,000
francs in 1918, and 595,000 francs in 1917. They have thus
almost quadrupled since 1917.
The operations of the Exchanges and -the results obtained
by them increased in a much more considerable decree, as
the following figures will show :
XTJJIBER OF VACANCIES PILLED (IN THOUSANDS).
YEAE.

DEPAKTMEXTAL EXCHANGES.

1916
1917
1918
1919
1920

49
131
296
794
1,078

MUNICIPAL
EXCHANGES.

46
41
37
45
31

In 1919, the total expenses of the Departmental and
Municipal Exchanges amounted to 2,461,300 francs, which,
on a total of 840,840 vacancies filled, makes the average
expense per transaction 2.92 francs.
Vocational Spécialisation in Employment

Exchanges.

The French Departmental Employment Exchanges owe
their success to the spirit, in which they were conceived and
organised. Ear from making them official institutions, efforts
Avere made to apply to them the simple and rapid methods
of administration usual in commercial houses, while at the
same time preserving the characteristics of neutrality and
free service which distinguish public services from private
enterprises. With this object, great liberty has generally
been allowed to the joint committees responsible for the
administration of the Exchanges in the utilisation of the
credits allocated to them by the public authorities. The
Employment Exchanges have not been burdened with tasks
foreign to their functions, such as the payment of
unemployment benefits. They " have only been associated
with the latter functions (and very effectively) for the purpose
31
Departmental and Municipal Exchanges together. By way of
comparison, it may be pointed out that the public Employment Exchanges
organised by the British Government since 1909 fill a t the present time
the same number of vacancies, i. e. about one million per annum.

— 15 —
of verifying the involuntary character of the unemployment
and of endeavouring to find work for the greatest possible
number of unemployed persons in receipt of relief. The
principle is that the staff of the Employment Exchanges
should be occupied exclusively with public Employment
Exchange work. It is chosen with a view to the special
functions which it has to perform, and its operations are kept
free from bureaucratic formalities.
Another principle is that of the specialisation of the work
of the Exchanges by means of vocational sections. The
application of this principle has been carried farthest in the
greatest centres, and especially in Paris by the Departmental
Employment Exchange of the Seine.
The last-named Exchange, which commenced operations
on the 1st November, 1915, has developed considerably. 33
In 1919 it filled 176,000 vacancies. I t is sub-divided into
a. large number of vocational sections dealing particularly
with the clothing industries, the employees of hotels, restaurants and cafés, working barbers, the paper and cardboard
industries, domestic servants, labourers, shop porters, etc.
Some of these sections enjoy an almost complete autonomy
within the Departmental Office, and are administered by
special joint committees consisting solely of representatives
of the industries or vocations which they serve. Their
organisation is adapted to the particular needs of these
vocations, and their staff, which is recruited preferably from
the workers or employees in such vocations, is perfectly
informed of their usages and customs, and in a position to
judge both of the vocational qualifications of the persons
seeking employment and of the qualities required for the
employment offered. The confidence which these autonomous
vocational sections enjoy among their clientèle is so much
the greater in view of the fact that they are constituted after
a semi-official agreement has been reached on the subject
of their utility and their constitution among the workers'
and employers' organisations concerned, of which the members
of the joint committees are, in fact if not in law, the
representatives. This is particularly the case with the
sections dealing with the clothing industries, the employees
of hotels, restaurants and cafés, the working barbers, etc.
The personal contact on these joint committees between
the representatives of the employers' and workers'
organisations in these vocations constitutes a new factor and
one of great consequence for all problems relating to the
organisation of labour in these industries or vocations.
At Marseilles the Departmental Exchange of the Bouchesdu-Ehône has organised a special section for dockers, by
3!
La constitution de VOfjice départemental du placement et de la statistique,
son octroi et, ses travaux du 1er novembre au 30 octobre 1918. Report
presented to the General Council of the Seine by Messrs. Henri Sellier and
Emile Deslandes ; 1 vol. quarto, 432 pp.

— 16 —
means of which more than 5,000 vacancies are filled every
•week.
Vocational specialisation is also very advanced in
the Departmental Exchanges of Haute-Garonne, Loire-Inférieure and Seine-Inférieure. I t is developing more and more.
This specialisation does not exclude the centralisation
of the operations of the various sections in the same Exchange,
nor the co-operation of the various offices for the purpose of
attaining unity in the organisation of the labour market.
Thus, the joint Employment Exchanges for seamen which
have been created in the great maritime ports (Marseillesr
Bordeaux, îfantes, St.-îs"azaire, Dunkirk and Havre) by the
Administration of the Mercantile Marine, operate as maritime
A'ocational sections of the Departmental Employment
Exchanges of the Departments in which they are constituted.
The principle of unity is not so well observed in regard
to Employment Exchanges in agriculture. A national Department of Agricultural Labour (Office national de la main-d'œuvre
agricole) has been constituted in the Ministry of Agriculture
for the promotion of an organisation of Employment Exchanges
distinct from that of the Departmental and Municipal
Exchanges attached to the Ministry of Labour. We possess
no recent figures in regard to the employment exchange
operations of the Department of Agricultural Labour, but we
believe these operations have not been considerable. The Departmental Employment Exchanges, moreover, are actively engaged
in filling vacancies in agriculture as well as in industry, and
their efforts have promoted the return to the land of an
appreciable number of industrial unemployed. Under the
stimulus of the instructions of the Minister of Labour 33 they
made a special effort last summer to supply supplementary
labour to agriculture, and this rendered great service at the
times of harvest, threshing, and vintage. The number of
vacancies filled by these Exchanges in agriculture, which was
3,000 per month in the spring of 1920, increased to 4,607
in June, to 4,888 in July, to 9,464 in August and to 10,560
in September, 1920. The figures fell again after the end of
the season of great agricultural activity. u Altogether, the
number of agricultural vacancies filled by the Departmental
Exchanges in 1920 exceeded 50,000.
Inter-regional Employment Exchange operations.
The co-ordination of the operations of Employment
Exchanges on a national plan according to the formula of
the Washington Draft Convention on Unemployment is
secured in France by the Central Employment Exchange
established in the Ministry of Labour. This Exchange
collects from the Departmental and Municipal Exchanges
•n Ministerial Circular of the 20th July, 1920.
3
'• Bulletin du marché du Travail, 30th October, 1920.

— 17 —
the statistical information necessary to enable it to compile
periodically a table of the position of the national labour
market. This table appears every week in the Official
Journal (Journal Officiel).
Like the Departmental and Municipal Exchanges, the
Central Employment Exchange is under the control of a
joint committee, the national Labour Supply Council (Conseil
National de la Main-d'CEuvre), constituted by Decrees of
the 3rd February, 1920 and the 14th April," 1920, which
includes, besides the Delegates of the Ministries concerned
and representatives of Parliament, representatives of the
great organisations of employers and workers jn agriculture,
industry and commerce.
Between the Central Exchange and the Departmental
Exchanges six regional Employment Exchanges have been
interposed, whose activity in each case extends over a region
comprising a certain number of Departments, and the seats
of which are in Paris, Lille, Lyons, Marseilles, Toulouse and
Nantes. These Exchanges act as clearing houses for
maintaining a constant equilibrium in the labour market;
Inter-regional Employment Exchange operations were
.assisted by an understanding between the Ministry of Labour
and the great Eailway Companies 3 ", by virtue of which
workers for whom employment had been found by a public
Employment Exchange might, on presentation of a Certificate
delivered by such Exchange, obtain passenger tickets at a
quarter of the ordinary fare. The Companies granted half rates
and one quarter of the fare was repaid to them by the State.
Since 1st November, 1920, this system has been modified
in a manner less favourable to the workers. Under the
new system s6 the portion of the fare to be paid at the booking
office by the person concerned has been raised to 50 per cent.
Further, with a view to avoiding various abuses, certificates
will no longer be delivered to workers in certain vocations in
which travelling expenses normally constitute a charge
-either on the employers or the employees (employees of
hotels, restaurants, etc., cure-establishments, theatres and
other places of public entertainment, and commercial
travellers). Wage-earning or salaried workers whose wages
or salary in their new employment will amount to 35 francs
a day or 830 francs a month are also excluded from the
benefit of transport certificates.
I t must, moreover, be observed that, in practice, the
provisions relating to the transport of unemployed workers
•at reduced fares only affected a small number of persons.
Thus, for example, during the second half of 1918 interregional Employment Exchange operations involved the
delivery of only 5,000 certificates.
33
Circular of the Minister of Labour of the 12th September 1916.
'" Bulletin du marché du Travail of the 30th October, 1920.

— 18 —

Recruiting of foreign labour.
A section for the inspection and supervision of foreign
labour has been constituted in the Ministry of Labour. This
section deals with the introduction of contingents of foreign
labourers for whom places are found with the assistance of
the Departmental Employment
Exchanges.
It
also
supervises and controls the entry into Prance of ' isolated
foreign workers, and it is part of its duty to see to the application of the Conventions between France on the one hand
and Italy, Poland, Portugal and Czecho-Slovakia on the
other, relating to conditions of recruiting and employment
of immigrant Avorkers.
Depots and registers of foreign labour have been established
in the frontier tOAvns of Hendaye, Marignac and Perpignan
for Spaniards; Mentone and Modane for Italians ; Buissieux and
Tourcoing for Belgians, and at Toul for Poles. Depots or
registers for the interior are also in operation at Marseilles,
Bordeaux, Lyons, liantes, Toulouse and Paris. These
together filled 149,000 vacancies in 1920. 37
The vacancies filled by the Frontier Depots and Eegisters
Avere distributed as folio AVS :
A C C O R D I N G TO X A T I O N A L I T Y .

Italians
Spaniards . . . .
Poles
Belgians . . . .
Portuguese. . . .
Other nationalities.
TOTAL

75,000
17,000
15,000
13,000
7,000
2,000

A C C O R D I N G TO I N DUSTRIES.

Labourers . .
ExcaA^ation and
Building . .
Metal Work .
Coalmines . .
Iron Mines .
Other Industries

129,000

. 55,000

. 49,000
. 10,000
. 6,000
. 4,500
. 4,500
TOT AL 129,000

The national Labour Supply Concil referred to above, in
connection Avith the Central Employment Exchange which
it supervises, has also the duty of giving general directions
to the foreign labour section Avitli a AneAv to regulating the
influx of foreign Avorkers in accordance Avith the needs of
industry, commerce and agriculture.
Thus, in vieAv of the groAvth of unemployment in France,
instructions haAre recently been given 38 to French Diplomatic
and Consular Agents abroad and to the Depots and Eegisters
of foreign labour to restrict admission to French territory to
" Bulletin du marché du Travail, 29th January 1921.
Bulletin du marché dit, Travail, 8th January 1921.

• — 19 —
agricultural workers, miners, and certain categories of skilled
workers. As regards the last-named, permission to enter
Prance will henceforth only be given on presentation of a
contract of engagement visa'd by the Ministry of Labour,
after enquiry at the Employment Exchanges, with a view
to ensuring that they shall only be sent to undertakings or to
districts in which there is a deficiency of French labour and
to which such labour cannot be supplied from other localities.
In order to meet the needs of the labour market, an
international direction has thus been given to the activities
of the well-organised system of French Public Employment
Exchanges.

— 20 —

STUDIES AND REPORTS
already issued
Where the English or French text of a Report has not yet been published it
will be issned at a later date.
S e r i e s A.
N ° 1.

THE

AGREEMENT

BETWEEN

T H E SPANISH

WORKERS'

SATIONS, issued S e p t e m b e r 2 5 t h 1920. French
"

T H E DISPUTE

THE

METAL

INDUSTRY

UNION

CONTROL O F I N D U S T R Y ,

French

and

ANNUAL

issued

ITALY.

September

THE

TRADES

INTERNATIONAL

CONGRESS

UNION

and

CONGRESS

T H E MINERS',

French and
6.

WORKERS

T H E FOOD

T H E CONGRESS

T H E MINERS'

1920.
•"

FEDERATION,

OF THE LABOUR

INTERNATIONAL

French

and

issued

T H E INTERNATIONAL

THE

October

A N D SOCIALIST

INTERNATIONAL

and

LABOUR

ORGANISATION.

French

CONGRESS

and

T H E DISPUTE

I N T H E METAL

T H E FOURTH

13.

" 14.

METAL

INDUSTRY

INTERNATIONAL

French

and

ALLIANCE,

IN ITALY.

UNION

November

OF BOOKBINDERS,

issued

English.

BRITAIN,

issued

December

21st

T H E XVth
CONGRESS
O F T H E GENERAL
CONFEDERATION OF
L A B O U R ( C O N F É D É R A T I O N G É N É R A L E D U TRAVAIL) h e l d a t O r l e a n s

T H E INTERNATIONAL

CONGRESS

OF GENERAL

TENDENCIES

THE

and

1920, issued

FACTORY

GROWTH

TRADE

UNIONISM

and

WORKERS,

English.

OF EUROPEAN LABOUR LEGISLATION SINCE

issued F e b r u a r y 11th 1921. French
•" 17.

TRADE

issued

English.

issued J a n u a r y 2 4 t h 1921. French
*" 16.

issued

FEDERATION OF
THE
GOVERN-

the
27th
September to t h e 2nd October
D e c e m b e r 23rd 1920. French and English.
•" 15.

COMPARISON,

WORKERS,

part)

CONGRESS

T H E M I N E R S ' STRIKE I N GREAT

1920.

19th

English.

T H E BRITISH
GOVERNMENT
AND THE MINERS'
GREAT
BRITAIN.
CONFERENCE
BETWEEN

N o v e m b e r 26th 1920. French
"

October

English.

CONTROL O F I N D U S T R Y . (Second
4 t h 1920. French and English.
" 12.

INTERNATIONAL,

issued

MENT
AND THE TRIPLE
INDUSTRIAL
October 2 6 t h 1920. French and English.
"" 11.

11th 1920.

English.

CONGRESS,

October 22nd 1920. French
"" 10.

AND

English.

issued October 2 1 s t 1920.
~"

and

English.

issued October 14th 1920. French
""

1920,

T H E BRITISH GOVERNMENT
AND T H E MINERS' FEDERATION OF
GREAT BRITAIN.
CONFERENCE BETWEEN SIR ROBERT
HORNE

AND
"

TRADE

2 5 t h 1920.

English.

D R I N K TRADES, issued o n October 1 1 t h 1920. French
""

ORGANI-

English.

MEETING

issued October 4 t h 1920. French
•"

and

THE WAR,

English.

DURING

1910-1919, issued F e b r u a r y 16th 1921. French

THE TEN

and

YEARS

English.

— 21 —

Series B
N° 1.

COAL PRODUCTION IN THE RUHR

DISTRICT.

Enquiry by

International Labour Office, end of May 1920, issued
tember 1st 1920. French and English.
"

PAPERS

TION

RELATING

SCHEMES

FOR THE DISTRIBUTION

INTERNATIONAL

the

Sep-

ORGANISA-

OF RAW MATERIALS AND FOOD

STUFFS, issued October 5th. 1920. French and English.
"

THE CONDITIONS OF LABOUR AND PRODUCTION IN THE UPPEE SILESIAN

COALFIELD, issued December 10th 1920.
" 4.

French and English.

T H E SOCIALISATION OF COAL MINES IN GERMANY, issued

January

25th 1921. French and English.
" 5.

T H E ESSEN MEMOEANDUM ON T H E SOCIALISATION OF THE COAL
MINES IN GEEMANY (6 Nov. 20), issued 28th January 1921.

French and English.
"

fi.

WORKS COUNCILS IN GERMANY, issued January 29th 1921, French

and English.
Series C.
N° 1.

BEITISH

LEGISLATION

ON UNEMPLOYMENT

INSUEANCE,

issued

October 26th 1920. French and English.
" 2.

GOVEENMENT ACTION I N DEALING WITH UNEMPLOYMENT I N ITALY,

" 3.

T H E BULGARIAN LAW ON COMPULSORY LABOUR, issued

issued October 27th 1920. French and English.
November

4th 1920. French and English.
" 4.

T H E ACTION

OF THE SWISS

UNEMPLOYMENT, issued
EngUsh.
" 5.

GOVERNMENT

November

DEALING WITH

13th 1920. French and

L'ORGANISATION DE L'ASSUEANCE-CHÔMAGE E T DU PLACEMENT DES
TEAVATLLEURS E N FRANCE, issued February 21th 1921. French

only.
Séries D.
N° 1.

STAFF REGULATIONS ON

THE FRENCH RAILWAYS,

issued

Sep-

tember 4th 1920. French and English.
Series F.
N° 1.

CANCER OF THE BLADDER AMONG WORKERS IN ANILINE FACTORIES,

issued Fabruary 23th 1921. French and English.
Series H.
N° 1.

CONSUMÉES' CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES

I N 1919

(Denmark

and

Sweden), issued September 8th 1920. French and English.
" 2.

SEVENTH

CONGRESS

THE BELGIAN

CO-OPERATIVE

issued September 25th 1920. French and- English.

OFFICE,

— 22 —

Series K.
N° 1.

F I R S T INTERNATIONAL
CONGRESS OF
AFFILIATED TO T H E INTERNATIONAL

LANDWORKERS'
UNIONS
FEDERATION OF TRADE

UNIONS, issued November 1920. French and English.
" 2.

AGRARIAN

CONDITIONS

IN SPAIN, issued November

10th 1920.

French and English.
" 3.' SMALL

HOLDINGS

I N SCOTLAND,

issued

November

12th

1920.

French and English.
"

THE

EIGHT-HOUR

DAY I N

ITALIAN

AGRICULTURE,

issued

De-

cember 10th 1920. French and English.
" 5.

T H E EIGHT-HOUR

DAY I N AGRICULTURE,

BEFORE

THE FRENCII

CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, issued February 10th 1921. French only.