Fanny Lederlin is a doctoral student in philosophy. She recently published
The Dispossessed of the Open Space
(Puf, 2020).
To discover
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FIGAROVOX. - Monday evening, the Minister of Labor Élisabeth Borne transmitted to the social partners the new national protocol for the health and safety of employees, which endorses the end of the number of mandatory telework days per week. What do you think of this decision?
Fanny LEDERLIN. -
Let us recall first of all that the number of days of teleworking has never been “compulsory”. During the health crisis, the Ministry of Labor has multiplied the protocols declining its recommendations and injunctions to companies, systematically bypassing recourse to labor law. Even if these instructions had an undeniable normative value - which in my opinion testifies to a worrying normativist drift on the part of the government - they have never constituted an obligation from the point of view of law. Then, this new protocol is added to the quantity of communications, notes, and other "frequently asked questions" (FAQ) which followed one another for nearly two years and which give the feeling that the Ministry of Labor has not stopped working. navigate by sight, are content to manage thehealth emergency - protect workers' health - and economic emergency - maintain activity at all costs - without engaging in deep reflection on changes in work. Ultimately, what is the government's view on teleworking? How could it constitute social progress? What possible risks does it present for workers or for society? The Minister of Labor leaves it to us to think about it on our own.what is the government's point of view on teleworking? How could it constitute social progress? What possible risks does it present for workers or for society? The Minister of Labor leaves it to us to think about it on our own.what is the government's point of view on teleworking? How could it constitute social progress? What possible risks does it present for workers or for society? The Minister of Labor leaves it to us to think about it on our own.
Faced with the upheaval represented by the generalization of teleworking and the social and political issues that they raise - how to maintain the same rights between workers who exercise teleworking jobs and others?
Fanny lederlin
The text stipulates that it is now incumbent on employers to ensure "the maintenance of links within the work group and the prevention of risks linked to the isolation of employees in teleworking" ... While teleworking has become essential since the beginning of the health crisis, is it possible to go back today?
The Ministry of Labor confronts companies with a superb contradictory injunction: it is a question of perpetuating teleworking (which a large majority of employees now consider as a fully-fledged social asset) while ensuring the maintenance of work collectives, the links between workers, and more broadly the social cohesion generated by face-to-face work. It is perhaps the new version of the Marconian “at the same time”, which is now combined with a bold “get by”! The least we can say is that it's a little light… Faced with the upheaval represented by the generalization of teleworking and the social and political issues thatthey raise - how to maintain the same rights between the working people who exercise teleworkable jobs (they are 30 to 40%, in majority of the employees of office and the executives) and the others (who exercise in particular the jobs of the "care" of which the crisis health suddenly revealed the importance)? How to prevent teleworking from producing new inequalities in terms of sex, generation, internationality, etc. ? - we could still have hoped that the government would launch a deep reflection with all the unions and social partners. Instead, it lets businesses organize themselves on a case-by-case basis. In doing so, it endorses the movement of individualization and even atomization of work that has been at work for decades.A movement that has gradually led to the replacement of collective negotiations by individual negotiations, and to privileging, in the relationship to work, personal considerations (well-being, comfort, fulfillment) over social and collective considerations (collective achievement, contribution to needs of others, solidarity, social justice).
The studies available to us show very clearly that intensive teleworking leads to self-isolation and over-exploitation of workers.
Fanny lederlin
How to determine the correct number of days of teleworking, so that it is favorable to the company as to the employees?
Only one thing seems clear to me: full-time teleworking, which companies like Twitter and Facebook defended during the first confinement, must be banned.
First, because it would obviously promote a form of
social dumping
which, after having affected blue-collar workers, would extend the deleterious effects of globalization to white-collar workers (IT specialists, graphic designers, journalists, marketing managers, etc.). Secondly, because the studies at our disposal show very clearly that intensive teleworking leads to isolation and over-exploitation by themselves of workers - who work longer, more intensively and above all more "job-free" and without restorative downtime - isolation and over-exploitation, the psycho-social consequences of which (increased burn-out, social unbinding, etc.) could prove to be disastrous.
Now, how many days do you have to telecommute?
I do not know.
But I fear a case-by-case negotiation that could favor workers already recognized and pampered by the company (the “talents” to be retained, to whom additional freedoms would be granted), to the detriment of the rest of the social body.
To be fair and preserve the principle of equality of working conditions, which is at the heart of labor law, discussions on the organization of work must be carried out collectively, by all unions and social partners, before being broken down by sector and by company.
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- Are we more productive in teleworking?
