LEEM negotiates new sales rep working time rules

France's drug industry association (LEEM) is attempting to negotiate a deal with labor unions over the way that marketing visits by drug company representatives are recorded. The group argues that there is a need to change the existing arrangements which date from 1956 and are based on an equivalence between working time and the number of physician visits.

In a statement, the LEEM argued that the current arrangements are no longer adequate for the diversity and spread of geographic sectors, the complexity of new products and the number of stakeholders who need to be kept informed of a firm's innovative drugs. The drugmakers' representative group proposed a reduction in the 218-day limit on days worked per year using a new accounting method for recording sales visits. However, talks between the LEEM and the unions appear to be stalling with two of them, the CFDT and the SNPADVM, accepting the principle of a pay scale based on 203 days.