PAPREC : Compliance, ethics and law

PAPREC recycling company put in place a new code of ethics. They negotiated this document with their company employees. One of the provisions is that religious signs should be prohibited within the company [Note1].

Most news media spoke about this innovation on Monday, February 11, 2014, because such a prohibition is not clearly legal at the present time in France. PAPREC company recognized that the validity of such a prohibition was not clear but it was necessary for his company, fully accepted by the company employees’ representatives [Note2]. Its president therefore decided to accept this legal risk of non legal compliance as the advantages outweighed that risk. 

PAPREC’s president also said that this was a way of inducing the legislator to change the French legislation so that is complies with what he considers to be the good ethical behavior.

More and more, as the example of Sunday work also shows, companies manage their legal risk and balance it with their own interests, especially regarding its profitability, the management of its human resources, or its clients’ expectations

Olivier BEDDELEEM

Associate professor in European Legal Strategy, EDHEC Business school

ESPEME entrepreneurship program director

beddeleemo@gmail.com

[NOTE1] “Une entreprise privée interdit les signes religieux dans ses locaux », Le Monde, 10 February 2014, http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2014/02/10/le-recycleur-paprec-adopte-une-charte-de-la-laicite_4363230_3224.html

[NOTE2] Ludwig GALLET, « Paprec: une charte de la laïcité abusive? », L’entreprise.fr, 10 February 2014,  http://lentreprise.lexpress.fr/gestion-du-personnel/paprec-une-charte-de-la-laicite-abusive_45901.html#1TsvryuxsrBfYV4H.99