Unions and employers want to play a greater role in the management of one of the oldest insurance systems: that which compensates accidents at work and occupational diseases. Monday, July 11, employers’ and employees’ organizations are launching a new round of discussions on this branch of the general social security scheme. Their goal is to reach an agreement by the end of the year, at the latest, on the missions and governance of the system.
The management of professional risks by the community was born at the end of the 19th century.e century, by means of a law of April 1898: it makes the business manager bear the obligation to repair any accident suffered by his staff, if the facts have a link with the latter’s activity. At the Liberation, these mechanisms were integrated into the “Sécu” to constitute one of the four pillars of the building – with Health insurance, the network of family allowance funds and Old-age insurance.
At present, the occupational accidents and diseases branch (AT-MP) is financially healthy. According to the “Sécu” accounts committee, in 2021 it recorded a positive result of 1.2 billion euros, its revenue coming almost exclusively from contributions paid by employers. The functioning of the system obeys somewhat singular rules: it is an integral part of the Health Insurance, while associating a body, called the AT-MP commission, in which sit union and employer representatives. It votes on the branch’s budget, advises on contribution rates, etc.
“A more equal management”
Today, the social partners would like to have more latitude in the branch’s decision-making. They had already expressed this wish in the national interprofessional agreement concluded in December 2020 on occupational health. “We are struggling to occupy the place that should be ours in the system”says Catherine Pinchaut, CFDT national secretary. “We want to move towards more equal management”adds Michel Chassang, of the Union of local businesses (U2P).
At the heart of the discussions, there will be in particular the surpluses of the branch, of which “a large part is given back to the National Health Insurance Fund [CNAM]when they should be used as a priority to finance prevention actions”, underlines Eric Chevée, vice-president of the Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises. His remark alludes to the transfers of money made from the AT-MP branch to the CNAM: they compensate for the expenses induced by pathologies or accidents attributable to work but which have not been recognized as such and which, at the same time , are covered by Medicare. These payments from the AT-MP branch are far from trivial: 1 billion euros per year during the period 2015-2021, according to a report by a commission of experts. These movements of funds take place under conditions and by virtue of criteria which are not “not clear enough”estimates Jérôme Vivenza, in charge of the file for the CGT.
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