France opens prud'hommes council candidatures for 2026-2029 mandate

The Ministère de la justice has opened the second complementary designation of conseillers prud’hommes for the prud’homal mandate 2026-2029, declaring vacant the seats listed in the annexes and setting the candidature filing window. Trade unions and professional organisations may submit applications from 7 September 2026 at 14:00 to 15 October 2026 at 18:00. The measure is set out in the arrêté du 11 août 2026, published in the Journal officiel de la République française (JORF) n°0193 of 20 August 2026 under reference JORFTEXT000054717706 (NOR JUSB2621104A).

Two categories of seats to be filled

The arrêté distinguishes two groups of seats opened to candidature. Annex 1 lists the seats declared vacant for the 2026-2029 mandate, while Annex 2 covers the seats of conseillers prud’hommes who reach the age of 75 between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2026, which are to be filled as of 1 January 2027.

The seats are distributed across the courts of appeal of metropolitan France and the overseas territories, from Agen and Aix-en-Provence to Versailles, including the overseas courts of Basse-Terre, Cayenne, Fort-de-France, Saint-Denis de La Réunion and the Tribunal supérieur d’appel de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

Who may apply and for which colleges

Candidatures are open to the representative trade unions and professional organisations, in both the Salariés (employees) and Employeurs (employers) colleges. The seats are broken down by section — IND (industry), COM (commerce), AGR (agriculture), ADV (activities diverses), ENC (encadrement) and INT (interprofessionnel).

Among the organisations concerned are the employee unions CGT, CGT-FO, CFDT, CFTC, CFE-CGC, UNSA, SOLIDAIRES, FSU, SNPLF ALPA, SNIACAM, UGTM, CGTM-FSM, CAT and TRAID-UNION, and the employer bodies MEDEF, CPME, U2P, UDES, FNSEA, FESAC and ARC.

A dense territorial map

The number of seats varies widely by council and organisation. The heaviest concentrations appear in the Paris and Versailles courts of appeal, where the CPME alone accounts for dozens of seats across councils such as Bobigny, Nanterre and Boulogne-Billancourt, while the U2P and MEDEF also hold large blocks in Lyon, Rouen and Toulon. The annexes detail, for each department, council, college and organisation, the exact number of seats open per section.

The filing period runs for just over five weeks, and the arrêté provides that it will be published in the Journal officiel de la République française. The designation is the second complementary round for the 2026-2029 prud’homal mandate, following the initial designation of conseillers prud’hommes.

Why it matters

The prud’hommes councils are the first-instance courts for individual labour disputes, and their composition must remain representative of both employees and employers. This complementary designation ensures that vacant seats — whether left open or triggered by the statutory age limit of 75 — are filled in time for the new mandate, guaranteeing that the councils can operate at full strength from 1 January 2027. Trade unions and professional organisations have until 15 October 2026 to put forward their candidates.

Source: Journal officiel de la République française, n°0193 of 20 August 2026, notices (official reference: JORFTEXT000054717706, NOR JUSB2621104A).