Elisabeth Borne is about to bang her fist on the table.
At the National Assembly, this Tuesday, November 2, she warned companies: where it is possible, "teleworking must be the rule, otherwise their responsibility will be engaged".
Indeed, since Monday, November 2, employees who thought they could work from their home, their tasks being able to be performed 100% remotely, had to come to their office.
Sometimes, they received an email from their employer, this weekend, calling on them to be "on site", several days a week, or even full time.
Elsewhere, oral instructions from their managers were sent to them by telephone.
The cases are far from isolated.
However, the Minister of Labor has been hammering it since Thursday, date of the publication of the new health protocol the day after the announcement of the re-containment by Emmanuel Macron in the face of the worsening of the Covid-19 epidemic: telework "is not not an option ”, but“ an obligation ”.
"All those who have teleworking tasks, and there are many of them, must telework five days out of five", Elisabeth Borne repeated this Tuesday on Europe 1. It is precisely this notion of "obligation" that some companies balk at. accept, in the name of their freedom to decide on contractual relations between an employer and its employees.
VIDEO. Reconfinement: "Teleworking will not be an option"
"The health protocol, the declarations of the President of the Republic, those of the Prime Minister or the Minister of Labor do not have the force of law", estimates Me Béatrice Pola, lawyer specializing in labor law.
"The Council of State also specified on October 19, 2020 that these were government recommendations for the implementation of the employer's safety obligation".
Indeed, article L.4142-1 of the Labor Code provides that employers do have the obligation to preserve the health of employees, but not to necessarily set up teleworking.
With the second wave of Covid-19, recommendations are accumulating, however, which all go in the direction of a generalization of telework: the World Health Organization, the scientific council, the government.
"The judges will obviously take into account these recommendations, if they are seized", considers the lawyer Béatrice Pola.
Companies will be exposed, in fact, to actions by employees as well as union representatives, before the courts.
It is inevitable ...
The labor inspectorate mobilized in the regions
At the Ministry of Labor, where people get annoyed with these legal debates when we have to deal with "a health emergency and a disease of which we do not know the longer-term effects", an action plan is in preparation with companies.
“It's a test week.
We must give employers and employees time to organize themselves, ”we are told.
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Elisabeth Borne has decided to deploy all the necessary diplomacy for companies to get started.
First, by mobilizing human resources managers.
Several videoconference meetings are scheduled in the presence of the Minister, as well as with the social partners who began their negotiations on the rules for telework on Tuesday.
The Direccte (labor inspectorate) are also responsible for supporting and advising companies and employees.
Large groups are invited to communicate the rules they have set to the ministry.
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Containment: Total employees teleworking ... with two recommended days at the office
As for the employees who did not experience teleworking during the first confinement, the ministry recommends an interview with the managers to make known “the complicated situations” which may require “flexibility”, in particular the possibility of coming to work on site in certain cases.
"When a risk of isolation is identified, a measured approach is needed."
A toll-free assistance number will be put into service in a few days for companies that cannot offer psychological cells.
And the Minister of Labor will make a first assessment at the beginning of next week ... before, they say, to toughen up the tone.