Jeff Whittaker (asker) Jan 24, 2018:

@philgoddard. Thank you. I agree that trade employee and tradesperson doesn't sound right (especially since the word "employee" is missing). Sometimes in these cases one can just provide an explanation of the term. Unfortunately, this term is used quite frequently in the document and a simple translation is needed. In my case, all the persons in question are mechanics, engineers, etc., so I am leaning toward using "skilled trade employees" or "skilled trade worker" which sounds a little better to me and does have at least some Google support: https://www.google.com/search?q="skilled-trade employee"

philgoddard Jan 24, 2018:

Métier must be one of the most difficult French words to translate! This phrase gets only eight hits, and they nearly all come from Canadian collective agreements, but I can't find a definition. I think "métier" implies a skilled manual or blue-collar worker, but I can't help feeling Marco's "tradesperson" has a rather old-fashioned ring to it, even in its gender-neutral version - for example I found a security guard being used as an example, and you wouldn't really describe them as a tradesperson. I also think "salarié" should be "salaried".