The executive tightens the screw on teleworking. Faced with the surge in Covid cases, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Monday that it would become mandatory again as of the start of the January school year. A temporary measure, since it should only take effect for three weeks.
To ensure that it is properly applied in companies, the Minister of Labor Elisabeth Borne announced this Tuesday during a videoconference with the social partners that fines are being considered. She wishes “to propose an amendment to the bill (strengthening the tools for managing the health crisis, editor’s note) to put in place more dissuasive and faster sanctions (of an administrative nature)”. “The feedback from the labor inspectorate shows that some companies remain resistant” to the implementation of teleworking as provided for in the national company protocol (PNE), underlined the ministry.
3 to 4 days of telework per week
“When companies do not play the game today, it involves criminal penalties. It is long and, to simplify this, administrative sanctions will be proposed. The idea is to put it in place for companies that do not really play the telecommuting game, not when there is a disagreement on a particular function in a department ”, explained one of the participants in the meeting. , the president of the CFTC Cyril Chabanier.
A new version of the PNE will be published by Thursday, including an “obligation to telework 3 days per week on average for positions which allow it, for three weeks, from January 3”, as announced Prime Minister Jean Castex on Monday. In addition, “companies which can go further are asked to increase teleworking to 4 days a week when possible”. As the ministry has emphasized on several occasions, this “obligation” stems from the need for the employer to ensure the health of its employees, enshrined in the labor code, even if its concrete translation in each company is the responsibility of the employers. , if possible within the framework of social dialogue.
The amount of the fine during arbitration
The CGT-TEFP, the first union of labor inspection agents, has long called for a tightening of the legal framework concerning teleworking, denouncing the weakness of the penalties incurred and the lack of staff to control companies. For Alexandra Abadie, national secretary of the union, the announcement of Elisabeth Borne shows that the “ministry realizes the insufficiency of current measures”. But the CGT-TEFP would have preferred that the inspectors could suspend the activity of a company in the event of breach of its obligations concerning teleworking, as they can do it for other risks.
The Minister did not specify what the amount of the fines could be, this question being arbitrated. According to Baptiste Talbot of the CGT, “there was at one point a reference to an amount of 2,000 euros per employee, for similarity with other types of offense”. Elisabeth Borne did not raise the question of controls either, according to several participants.
During the meeting, the minister also confirmed that the government was working on a review of the isolation periods for positive Covid cases and contact cases, in the face of the risk of deterioration in the functioning of companies. He will announce his decision “before the end of the week”. A consultation is also “planned in the days to come with the Ministry of the Economy on the aids which could be put in place for the activities subject to restrictions”. And, while “the priority remains with the vaccination”, Elisabeth Borne affirmed that the government wanted “to allow the occupational physicians to have access to the list of the unvaccinated of their perimeter”.