Office notebook. While government and companies are preparing to stem a fifth wave of Covid-19, the reflection on supporting teleworking is advancing in Parliament. The deputy La République en Marche (LRM) of Haute-Savoie Frédérique Lardet thus tabled in the National Assembly, in mid-November, a bill to create a “telework title” in an amount of 600 euros totally tax-exempt and with no out-of-pocket costs for the employee.
Most companies already pay teleworking compensation, at least on the basis of 2.50 euros per teleworked day, sometimes much more. But the difficulty for many employees is that their home is not suitable, does not have a space isolated from the rest of the family. In February, already, the senator of Paris Julien Bargeton (LRM) had tabled a bill in the Senate to set up the equivalent of a “office title”, a means of payment co-financed by the company and the employee. to set up telework in spaces other than their home: third places, coworking spaces, etc.
The new step taken by this “teleworking title” is that it also covers the costs of the teleworker at home and that it is financed only by the company. “The employee does not have to pay part of what constitutes the essence of the employment contract, namely the place of work”, explains Frédérique Lardet.
A social justice issue
The support would take the form of a flat-rate allowance capped at 600 euros per year and per employee, called “teleworking package”, exempt from social contributions and contributions and income tax. Currently the costs borne by the employer are exempt from contributions up to a limit of 10, 20 or 30 euros per month for one, two or three days of teleworking per week. Concretely, the employer will issue “A specific, dematerialized and prepaid payment solution issued by a specialized company to allow the employee to settle the costs incurred in the context of teleworking”, indicates the explanatory memorandum of the proposed law.
With the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 variants and the long-term retention of employees in regular teleworking, a quality workspace has become an issue of social justice. According to the latest report from the Ministry of Labor, 20% of employees still teleworked at the end of October. According to the most recent studies (Sapiens Institute, European Data Lab), the share of jobs eligible for teleworking could reach 37.8% in France. A Senate note on the prospects for post-Covid-19 teleworking by 2050 estimates “Half of the active”.
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