Abstract

Serious studies agree that small and medium-sized firms’ practices in human resource management are not very formalized. However few studies have focused on the “social dialog” between labor and employers there; and none has apparently sought to understand how the heads of such firms manage the effects of legally established thresholds related to the size of the workforce. Legal requirements with a bearing on collective negotiations differ significantly depending on the size of the workforce, their impact increasing when the workforce rises above certain thresholds (fifty wage-earners, for instance). Based on a qualitative survey, this article describes the attitudes of the heads of small and medium-sized businesses that have crossed or are about to cross such a threshold. There is agreement about the risk, at that point, of “fixing the books” and of increasing conflict and “technicization” in labor relations. Light is shed on the practices of “cooperative” company executives who try to manage the “social dialog” in a strategic way.