Required teleworking: questions around sanctions on “recalcitrant” companies

The Government announced Tuesday, December 28 that administrative sanctions could be taken against “recalcitrant” companies facing teleworking. Fines could be inflicted. Their amount should be decided by the end of the week.

by

Simple red cloth or real tour of the executive? Whatever the answer, the Ministry of Labor surprised the social partners, together on Tuesday, December 28 in the morning in videoconference to evoke the “mandatory” extension of teleworking to three or four weekly days, announced that administrative sanctions could be taken against “recalcitrant” companies.

“We conducted a survey before the holidays that indicates that 60% of employees who have a teletravailable post actually do teleworking, which shows that there is a very clear margin of progression,” says At the cabinet of Minister Elisabeth Borne to support this decision. However, the Rue de Grenelle does not have any figures to assess the number of refractory businesses that have not, since the spring of 2020, desired to set up a telecommuting agreement for their employees, simply stressing that ” The vast majority of companies play the game “.

In the same way, there is already an arsenal of sanctions applicable to these companies which derogate from the planned rules: the labor inspectorate can carry out checks, not only on the establishment of teleworking, but also on all of the Provisions provided for by the health protocol in an enterprise (port of the mask, distancing …) to fight against the epidemic of COVID-19. According to the situation noted, it is entitled to issue a letter of observation, a formal notice, a report or even to continue the criminal enterprise.

Act faster

Indeed, if the teleworking is not, strictly speaking, a legal obligation, the company that exposes itself in the current conditions, namely a pandemic, can be reproachted to miss the obligation protecting the health and safety of its employees. Again, without giving figure on the number of controls and prosecutions, the Department ensures that “95% of the facts are followed”.

Why, in these conditions, create new sanctions that will materialize in the form of fines? The current procedure has the disadvantage of being long and heavy, and fines will make it possible to act more “rapidly”, explains the department, relayed on this point by the trade union organizations. “The idea is especially to have a more efficient weapon” against companies that derogate from the health protocol, “says Baptiste Talbot, which represented the CGT at the meeting of Tuesday. The establishment of this scheme will nevertheless require a certain time as it should be the subject of an amendment to the bill transforming the vaccineal passenger pass whose examination will begin next week. It will not be applied at best before “MI or end of January”, admit to the Ministry of Labor.

You have 39.01% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.

/Media reports.