Conference paper
https://doi.org/10.31141/zrpfs.2026.63.159.67
Control of the Administration as an Employer
Olivier Japiot
; Conseiller d’État
Abstract
This contribution examines how French law frames and controls the administration in its role as a
public employer. Subject to a public-law regime distinct from private labour law, the administration
enjoys unilateral prerogatives over its agents but remains bound to respect the principles of legality,
equal treatment and equal access to public employment, as well as a duty to protect its agents. The
administrative judge is its principal guarantor: he reviews both the external and internal legality of
decisions relating to agents’ careers and no longer allows an unfavourable measure to escape review
under the guise of a mere “internal-order measure”. In disciplinary matters, this review has deepened
considerably, the judge now exercising full control over the characterisation of misconduct and the
proportionality of sanctions. Alongside this judicial review, the study presents the non-jurisdictional
mechanisms that protect agents: internal hierarchical and consultative remedies, joint bodies, the
intervention of the Defender of Rights (Défenseur des droits), the role of trade unions (including
class actions), the monitoring of occupational health and safety, and, as a last resort, the criminal
liability of public officials. Finally, the author highlights the growing influence of European law –
the European Union’s social directives and the fair-trial requirements stemming from the European
Convention on Human Rights – and underlines the closeness of the French model to the Croatian
one, both founded on independent administrative judicial review that guarantees public agents
effective protection against the arbitrariness of the State as employer.
Keywords
administration as employer; civil service; judicial review; disciplinary sanction; protection of public agents
Hrčak ID:
347922
URI
Publication date:
31.3.2026.
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