“The employers have finally come to their senses!”
Some believe.
This Tuesday, the Medef, the U2P and the CPME indeed agreed to open a negotiation on teleworking, whereas they were opposed to it until then.
“A real step forward”
welcomed by the Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne, who considers that
“an agreement will make it possible to meet a strong societal expectation”.
Read also:
How to convince your boss to let you telecommute?
Teleworking, regulated in the company by a collective agreement or a charter, has developed in recent years.
Over 500 agreements have been signed, many more are in the process of being ratified.
In 2019, 30% of employees in the private sector practiced teleworking compared to only 25% two years earlier, according to a study by Malakoff Humanis.
With the health crisis and confinement, telework has exploded to become the norm.
Last April, one in five (20%) had worked full time.
And employees have taken a liking to it: in May, 73% wanted it to continue on a regular or occasional basis.
Employees believe that teleworking allows them a better reconciliation between personal and professional life, improves their productivity, and gives them greater autonomy.
For the unions, this enthusiasm must translate into better supervision of the practice of teleworking.
The potential agreement should not be prescriptive or prescriptive
Hubert Mongon, Medef negotiator
Message received, therefore, by the employers who, since June, have organized several consultation meetings with the unions to arrive at a shared diagnosis on the subject.
Lying on a document of ten pages, it received the favorable opinion of the CFDT, CFE-CGC and FO.
The CGT, for its part, abstained from any contribution during this last meeting.
As for the CFTC, it had already thrown in the towel on September 11, pending the opening of negotiations.
It is now done.
The employers recognize that
"to meet the aspirations of employees, and so that they find themselves there",
there is a logic to bring together in a summary document the texts on the subject falling under the agreements of 2005, the law of 2012 and 2017 ordinances.
Next two meetings in November
However, he indicated that
"the potential agreement should not be either normative or prescriptive,"
insisted Hubert Mongon, Medef negotiator.
Clearly, if the employers are ready to go further, they do not want too rigid texts or too expensive expenses for companies.
The objective, he says,
"is not to go back to positive law, but to recall certain major principles",
such as double volunteering or reversibility, which already appear in the labor code.
Beyond that, the negotiations will also focus on the anticipation of the implementation of teleworking, the diversity of workplaces, management issues with the training of managers, support for employees, the integration of new employees.
More sensitive subjects, such as its material organization, and the professional costs incurred by the employees at the employer's expense, as well as the employee's isolation, will also be examined.
While the French appreciate the flexibility of teleworking, they also see its limits, first and foremost the difficult separation between personal and professional life for 57% of teleworkers, or the difficulty of team cohesion and exchanges (57 %).
To read also:
Teleworking: why they are against
The question also arises as to how the occupational physicians will be able to assess the working conditions of employees and monitor their health and safety.
"How to detect weak signals in an employee?
Teleworking can make burnout even more concealable, ”
points out Me Nicolas Mancret, of the Jeantet cabinet.
Two next meetings have already been scheduled for November 3 and 23.
The CFTC has let it be known that it will decide on its participation in confederal proceedings on Wednesday.
All the others have already confirmed their presence.
