Amid potential negotiations between social partners bearing particularly on the quality of working life - an opportunity to address the question of occupational health as well as the prevention and management of absence from work – and on the situation of the working poor and gender equality, in a brief dated February 24, 2025, the Minister of Labor and Employment requested that benchmarking data be collected and good practices identified in various comparator countries.
To that end, several sources have been drawn on within a very short space of time:
 

• Social affairs advisors based at French embassies in Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden (also
  covering Denmark) and the United Kingdom were asked a series of questions (about situations
  of informal caregiving, situations of absenteeism, wage mobility over the course of a career,
  geographic mobility to promote a return to employment and limiting the use of insecure work
  contracts); their responses are printed in full in the annex hereto;
• France’s permanent representation to the European Union consulted its counterparts about a
  number of subjects (such as limiting the use of insecure contracts and women’s health in the
  workplace),
• Eurogip reviewed the literature on occupational health risks (chemical risks, musculoskeletal
  disorders, heat stress and psychosocial risks) and the risks of long-term sickness absence;
• Benchmarking data collated in recent IGAS reports was selected, not least on the impact
  management has on the quality of work, the use of involuntary part-time work, the comparison
  of some public employment services or the use of mid-career retraining initiatives.
   

The public policy objectives selected for the benchmarking have the merit of concerning a broad population target. They make it possible to address the quality of both work (prevention of the main occupational risks, impact of managerial models) and employment (job transitions, involuntary part-time work, consideration of employees’ or jobseekers’ personal constraints).