Background
On March 5, 2024, the Union départementale Force ouvrière de la Nièvre notified Alliance propreté services that it had appointed employee Mme [S] [K] as its union-section representative within the company. Alliance challenged the appointment before the judicial court on March 22, 2024.
Following an earlier cassation and remand, the Bourges Judicial Court annulled the appointment on July 25, 2025. It found that the union had published its accounts for the 2022 financial year on July 31, 2023, before the union’s designated supervisory commission approved them on October 26, 2023. The employee and the union filed connected appeals, arguing that publication before approval did not itself defeat the statutory requirement of financial transparency.
The Court’s Holding
The Court of Cassation rejected both appeals. Reading Articles L. 2135-1, L. 2135-4, L. 2135-5, and D. 2135-8 of the Labor Code together, it held that a union does not satisfy the financial-transparency requirement when it publishes its accounts before they have been approved by the general assembly of members or by the collegiate supervisory body designated in its bylaws.
Because the union’s 2022 accounts were published nearly three months before the supervisory commission approved them, the lower court correctly concluded that the union had not demonstrated financial transparency. The cancellation of Mme [K]’s appointment as union-section representative therefore stood. The Court disposed of the appellants’ other arguments without a specially reasoned ruling because they were manifestly incapable of supporting cassation, and it denied their requests for costs under Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Key Takeaways
- A union must satisfy the statutory financial-transparency criterion before exercising the right to appoint a union-section representative.
- Publication of union accounts must follow approval by the members’ general assembly or the collegiate supervisory body designated by the union’s bylaws.
- Publishing accounts before the required internal approval does not establish financial transparency and may invalidate a representative’s appointment.
Why It Matters
The decision establishes a clear sequencing requirement for French unions: formal approval of accounts must precede their publication. Publication alone is insufficient, even when the accounts are approved later.
Employers challenging a union appointment may therefore examine not only whether the union prepared, approved, and published its accounts, but also whether it completed those steps in the legally required order.