Farewell of the business for the money?

The reform of the social object, considered in the framework of the act The Mayor, pushed the employers ' organisations. What is at stake.

Modify the civil code to integrate social and environmental aspects in "the social object of the company? The project is in reflection, in the framework of the Covenant (plan for business growth), which will be launched in the spring. The employers absolutely do not want to hear about it. They only have one word to mouth, or rather two: "legal risk".

Responsible for campaign counsel for Greenpeace France, Laura Monnier was amused to see the companies fear of new litigation. "This proves that they communicate a lot about their CSR, but that, in their practices, they are not as virtuous as they claim to be."

Nicole Notat (the patron saint of the society of social rating Vigeo) and Jean-Dominique Senart (president of Michelin), must in any case floor on the topic, in the framework of the mission "business and general interest", with the conclusions expected for march. The idea of extending the social object is ideological and clivante, even in the ranks of the government. "This will be the fight the hardest to conduct," says Marylise Leon, national secretary of the CFDT, a trade union advocating ardently for this measure.

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"Restore to the work its meaning"

the object of The company is a legal concept that defines the purpose of the company, its field of activity. Thus, the civil code indicates that a company is "established by two or several persons which agree by a contract to assign to a joint venture of property or industry with a view to sharing profits or benefiting from savings that may derive therefrom" (article 1882) and that "every company shall have a lawful purpose and be established in the common interest of the partners" (article 1883).

In the camp of supporters of a rewrite figure, without surprise, Nicolas Hulot, minister of the ecological Transition and solidarity, for which "it is necessary to give the work its meaning". Bruno The Mayor, to him, is showed the opposite "in a personal capacity", preferring the adoption of a social object expanded on the basis of volunteering. Keeping to take a formal position, the minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, plays the card of caution: "be Careful to not overlook the impact of legal developments that we will decide on the legal responsibility of the leaders, she warned. There need to be rules in stable, predictable and secure."

The legal security. The argument that they put forward the Medef and the CPME, to change nothing in the current law, and reflect a liberal vision according to which the company has for its aim the creation of wealth for its shareholders, is there a real risk or is it pure speculation?

The fear of "activist shareholders"

If the article of 1882 was expanded, this would not be necessarily more risk, consider most of the lawyers we interviewed. "A company is subject to a variety of obligations under the code of the environment and the definition of the social object has no effect on this point," remarked the lawyer Arnaud Gossement. "If tomorrow an offshore platform to a tanker, creating an oil spill on the beaches of Finistère, it will have to be accountable, that the respect for the environment is in the social object or not," sums up yet Sébastien Robineau, of the firm of Homer.

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"Of activist shareholders could estimate that the resolutions adopted by the general Assembly or the Board of directors should be overturned because they violate the social interest or the object of the company expanded", however, feels Stéphanie Fougou, president of the French Association of company lawyers.

Less flexibility

The redesign of the article 1883 focuses the bulk of the contractions. If "the common interest of the partners" is no longer alone in the game, but add to that the various stakeholders of the company (employees, subcontractors, clients, etc), the companies could see their margin of maneuver is narrow, and their leaders fear being more easily convicted due to lack of management or abuse of social goods. Trial tire larigot on the horizon? Possible, even if, as to bring an action in justice, it must be able to demonstrate that its "interest to act".

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Hyper-invested in this topic, the CFDT is currently working on an optimal formulation of the corporate purpose, which could inspire the government. The objective is to find a way of changing attitudes and behaviours in businesses, without introducing what Laurent Berger, the head of the union, called a "cleaver legal".