Employees social protection at the time of destabilised work groups[La protection des salariés à l'épreuve de l'éclatement des collectifs de travail]

Professional social protection, as provided by collective or firm agreements, induces inequalities in contents and in access. A historical analysis of employers' pratices in the 19th century, combined with the study of the welfare state formation enabled us to put forward the central role played by firms in implementing a "social protection system". This is mainly explained by the use of professional social protection as a management tool (I). More recently, institutional modifications of legal rules (particularly the "Lois Auroux") have created the conditions for increasing the importance of firm agreements and weakening professional regulations. These changes strenghtened the inequalities in social protection in a context of destabilised work groups. On a methodological point of view, the "REPONSE" survey for 1998 is used to study the firm's role in awarding professional social protection (II).