This is an important legislative breakthrough for people with chronic illnesses, including diabetics. Unanimously, the Parliament definitively adopted, Thursday, November 25, a consensual bill aimed at combating the professional discrimination to which they are subjected.
Supported by the deputy Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo (Agir ensemble, center right), member of the majority, the text was voted on one last time in the National Assembly, unanimously.
Extended to other chronic diseases, this bill initially concerned the more than 4 million diabetics, who are prohibited, for safety reasons, from practicing certain professions (flight attendant and steward, driver and driver of train, sailor, SNCF controller and controller, soldier, firefighter and firefighter).
The parliamentarians consider that these prohibitions in principle do not sufficiently take into account the evolution of salaries and require an assessment on a case-by-case basis. The bill thus affirms the principle of non-discrimination in access to employment or studies for people with chronic diseases.
To establish whether the health conditions are met or not for access to a profession, the text insists that “An individualized medical assessment” which takes into account the “Possibilities of treatment or compensation for disability”.
The fight of Hakaroa Vallée
This law also sets up, for a period of three years, a committee responsible for evaluating the texts governing access to the labor market for these patients: it will have to propose“Update” the rules in force with regard to the evolution of salaries, in order to improve access to certain professions.
The drafting of the bill was partly watered down during the parliamentary shuttle with the Senate.
The text voted by the Assembly at first reading affirmed: “No one may be excluded from a recruitment procedure or from access to an internship or a training period on the sole ground that they are suffering from a chronic disease, in particular diabetes. ” A sentence that no longer appears in the final version.
Throughout the drafting of the text, parliamentarians have often mentioned the fight of Hakaroa Vallée, a young diabetic who is stepping up actions to fight against discrimination.