The Comité Social et Économique (CSE), or Social and Economic Committee, is the single unified employee representative body introduced by the Ordonnances Macron of September 2017 and mandatory in all French companies reaching 11 or more employees. By 31 December 2019, all pre-existing staff representative bodies including the comité d'entreprise, the délégués du personnel, and the comité d'hygiène, de sécurité et des conditions de travail (CHSCT) were required to be merged into a CSE. The body is elected every four years by all employees.
The CSE's role and powers scale with company size. In companies with 11 to 49 employees, the CSE has limited consultation rights and handles individual employee grievances. In companies with 50 or more employees, the CSE gains broader economic and strategic consultation rights, including mandatory information and consultation before restructurings, redundancy plans, and significant changes to working conditions. Companies with 300 or more employees may be required to establish specialist sub-committees (commissions).
For international companies establishing operations in France, triggering the 11-employee threshold obligates the employer to organise CSE elections within 90 days. Failing to establish a CSE when legally required is a criminal offence and can also invalidate employer decisions that should have been subject to prior consultation.