A puzzle for businesses. From the start of the school year, employees who can do so will have to work at least three days a week by teleworking. A measure desired by the Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, in the face of the strong resumption of the Covid-19 epidemic and its variant Omicron. In the event of non-compliance, penalties may go up to 2,000 euros. But on Europe 1, the Minister Delegate in charge of SMEs since last November, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, expressed his confidence in all professionals.
An obligation badly experienced by companies
“We must trust common sense,” said Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne on Europe 1, recalling that the government is accelerating teleworking “because the virus is accelerating”. Previously, at the microphone of Europe 1, the secretary general of the Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises (CPME), regretted this obligation: “What will happen is that the labor inspector, in a way, will have a logbook and can put a fine. That’s not the way things should work. “
Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne insists on the fact that this obligation will only concern employees for whom it is possible to work remotely, “such as positions related to administration, business management”. “What must prevail is common sense and commitment because we can count on the commitment of entrepreneurs (…). I still believe in mutual trust,” added the Minister Delegate.
“There must always be a system of sanctions in case”
This obligation, the secretary general of the CPME sees it as a “threat”. “Until now, the government considered companies as partners in dealing with this epidemic. To threaten them with a fine, that makes no sense. You have to convince them, not threaten them”, he said on Europe 1.
If he expresses his “confidence”, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne argued that it is necessary “always to envisage a device of sanctions in the event that. Confidence makes that I hope that this device will have as little as possible to be used. ” The Minister Delegate in charge in particular of SMEs highlighted the responsibility of each “to avoid too much social interaction and to break all the chains of contamination that may exist.”