After the workplace elections, the outgoing members of a French works council must report on their management to the new council and hand the new members every document about the council’s administration and activity (article R2315-39 of the French Labor Code). Minutes, accounts and the internal rules almost always change hands. The council’s mailbox, its password, its recovery options and its open conversations rarely do, even though that is where employees’ pending requests sit.
A note on terms: in France, the CSE (comité social et économique) is the elected body that represents employees in companies with 11 or more employees. Its members are elected employees. This article is for the members who leave and the ones who arrive, especially the secretary and the treasurer, who usually carry the handover. It ends with an end-of-term report template that includes a mailbox section.
What the law requires, and from what size
Article R2315-39 of the Labor Code sets two obligations for the outgoing members. They report to the new council on their management. And they hand the new members “all documents concerning the administration and activity of the council”.
Which councils does this cover? According to Éditions Tissot, a French employment law publisher, the obligation only concerns councils in companies of at least 50 employees, and the law provides nothing of the kind for councils in companies of 11 to 49 employees.
So in a smaller council nothing forces you to do it. Do it anyway. Employees keep writing to the council during and after the elections, and new members have no other way to know what was still open.
The usual hand-over list
Crédit Mutuel’s works council newsletter of March 2023 says that a handover must take place between the members of the old and new terms, and that it can take the form of an end-of-term report. It adds that failing to report to the new members could be treated as obstructing the council’s proper functioning.
It suggests compiling:
- what the council did during the term;
- what is still in progress: legal matters, consultations, expert reports;
- the activities offered to employees and the rules for allocating them;
- current contracts;
- assets and stock;
- the software used and its access codes.
And giving access to the key documents: the internal rules, the minutes, the expert reports, the accounting records and the council’s management report.
Éditions Tissot also lists access to the council’s bank accounts and means of payment. The mailbox falls under “the software used and its access codes”, but nobody thinks of it as software. Yet it is the only place where the open conversations with employees, suppliers and management live.
When to hand over
For Éditions Tissot, the handover must happen as soon as the new members take office. Not three months later, when the outgoing treasurer has moved to another department or left the company.
The timing is predictable. Council members are elected for four years (article L2314-33), and a collective agreement can set a term between 2 and 4 years. So the end date is known well in advance. A term can also end early: resignation, end of the employment contract, loss of eligibility. Then the handover happens between one member and their replacement, mid-term, and the mailbox raises exactly the same questions.
The best time to prepare the mailbox part is the month before the vote, while the outgoing members are still there and know what is open.
The mailbox: four questions to settle
Who owns the account?
An address for the council, or a council Gmail address was created one day by someone. That person chose the password, and often used their own phone number and their own backup email as recovery options. If they leave, they are still the one who can recover the account the day Gmail or Outlook asks for a verification.
Before the handover, write down who knows the password and which recovery phone and email are on file, and move them to a member who stays or arrives. On a Google account, do it at least a week ahead: after a change, Google may keep sending codes to the old information for seven days. If the address is on the company’s domain, the IT department owns the account: ask them who will have access after the elections.
Which conversations are still open?
An employee asked about their health insurance ten days ago. An event supplier is waiting for an answer on a quote. Management sent the documents for a consultation in progress. None of this appears in the minutes.
List what is waiting for a reply or an action, one line per topic: who wrote, what they are waiting for, who was on it, the next deadline. An hour of work for the outgoing members, weeks saved for the new ones.
Where are the minutes sent by email?
Once adopted, the minutes of council meetings may be posted or circulated in the company by the secretary (article L2315-35). In many councils, that means an email to all employees. The mailbox then holds the record of what was circulated and when. Check that these emails stay in the council’s mailbox and not only in the secretary’s personal one.
Who writes to the council, and at what address?
If employees and suppliers know the council’s address, keep it. Changing the address at every term means losing the emails sent to the old one. More on a shared address that belongs to nobody in particular on our page for works councils.
Removing one person’s access vs changing a password everyone knew
If the mailbox is shared by password, the handover is a real dilemma. Change the password and give it to the new members: it is the only way to shut out the outgoing ones, but it has to happen that day, and again at every resignation. Change nothing: former members keep access to employees’ personal questions, sometimes for years. Nobody wants that, but it is what usually happens.
With access per person, the question goes away: you remove the departing member’s access and nobody else notices. Gmail allows it through delegation, other tools through a shared mailbox. We compared the options in sharing a mailbox without sharing the password, and the risks of a shared password in shared inbox security risks. If the address itself is the problem, for example because it belongs to one member, the works council email address compares the options.
The council sets out how it works and how it deals with employees in its internal rules (article L2315-24). That is a good place to write, in two lines, who owns the mailbox and what happens to it at the end of each term. The next council will not have to work it out again.
End-of-term report template
Copy and fill in. The sections follow the usual list, with a mailbox section added.
End-of-term report of the [company] works council, term [year] to [year]
1. What we did: consultations, activities for employees, actions with management.
2. In progress: consultations, expert reports, legal matters, with their next deadline.
3. Activities and allocation rules: rules in force, decisions that set them.
4. Contracts, assets and stock: current contracts with their end date, equipment, stock of vouchers or gift cards.
5. Accounts: accounting records, management report, access to bank accounts and means of payment.
6. Documents: internal rules, minutes, expert reports, and where they are kept.
7. Software and access codes: list of tools and who has access.
8. Council mailbox
- Address: [cse@…]
- Account owner and email provider: [Gmail, Outlook, company IT…]
- Recovery phone and email: [move to: …] Done on: [date]
- Who has access today: [names] Access removed on: [date]
- Open conversations: [one line per topic: who wrote, what they are waiting for, next deadline]
- Minutes circulated by email: [where to find them]
- Password changed on: [date], given to: [names], or not needed if each member has their own access
A mailbox that outlives the term
With a shared mailbox like Trupeo, section 8 of the report nearly fills itself. You connect the council’s existing address: Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft 365 or any IMAP mailbox. Each member signs in with their own account, without knowing the mailbox password. Each conversation shows who is on it and where it stands: to assign, in progress, done. Team notes sit next to the email, never seen by the employee who wrote.
At handover time, you assign the open conversations to new members, remove the outgoing members’ access, and invite the new ones. Removing one member does not touch anyone else’s access. The history and the notes stay with the council. Trupeo does not change who owns the account at Gmail or Outlook: the recovery options still need settling either way. And if the mailbox password changes, reconnect it in Trupeo: at Google, an app’s access to Gmail can stop when the account password changes, and for an IMAP mailbox Trupeo uses the stored password until you replace it.
The price: €10 a month excluding VAT for a connected mailbox shared by 2 people, €20 from 3 people, however many members there are beyond that. Details on the pricing page.
Other teams that change often face the same question: we covered it for associations in volunteer email handover and for strata and HOA boards in handing over the board’s mailbox.
Frequently asked questions
What must outgoing works council members hand over?
Every document about the council’s administration and activity, and an account of their management (article R2315-39 of the French Labor Code). In practice: minutes, internal rules, accounting records, management report, expert reports, contracts, and the software used with its access codes, the council’s mailbox included.
Is the handover required in a council of a company under 50 employees?
No. According to Éditions Tissot, the R2315-39 obligation only concerns councils in companies of at least 50 employees, and nothing is provided between 11 and 49. The handover is still good practice, if only for the employees who keep writing to the council.
When should the works council handover happen?
As soon as the new members take office. Prepare the mailbox part in the month before the vote, while the outgoing members still know what is open, and change the account’s recovery options at least a week before the handover date.
Should we change the council mailbox password after the elections?
If members share a password, yes: it is the only way to shut out the outgoing members, and it has to be given to all the new ones. If each member has their own access, you remove the outgoing members’ access without changing the password.
Sources:
- Article R2315-39 of the French Labor Code (Code du travail numérique, in French): outgoing CSE members report on their management to the new council and hand the new members all documents about the council’s administration and activity.
- Élections professionnelles : quelles informations transmettre entre deux mandatures du CSE ? (Éditions Tissot, April 15, 2022, updated June 7, 2024, in French): the obligation limited to councils in companies of at least 50 employees, nothing provided for 11 to 49, the handover as soon as new members take office, usually carried by the outgoing secretary and treasurer, access to accounts and means of payment.
- Lettre partenaire CSE, March 2023 (Crédit Mutuel, PDF, in French): the handover between members and the end-of-term report, the risk of obstruction, the list of information to pass on, including the software used and its access codes, and the key documents; elections every 4 years, required from 11 employees.
- Article L2314-33 of the French Labor Code (Code du travail numérique, in French): election for four years and the causes of an early end of term.
- CSE : élection des membres (entreprendre.service-public.gouv.fr, in French): a collective agreement can set a term between 2 and 4 years.
- Article L2315-35 of the French Labor Code (Code du travail numérique, in French): adopted minutes may be posted or circulated in the company by the secretary.
- Article L2315-24 of the French Labor Code (Code du travail numérique, in French): the internal rules set how the council works and how it deals with employees.
- Set up recovery options (Google Account Help): the recovery phone and email, and codes that may still go to the old information for seven days after a change.
- Delegate & collaborate on email (Gmail Help): a delegate reads and sends email for the account owner without being able to change the password, and is removed individually in settings.
- Using OAuth 2.0 to Access Google APIs (Google for Developers): an app’s refresh token might stop working when the user changes their password and it covers Gmail.