Sport and work: an amendment that weakens the practice in France?

The French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF), representative of the sports movement before the public authorities, expresses its incomprehension after the adoption on Wednesday of a government amendment to the social security financing bill.

In a press release, the CNOSF deplores a provision which considers the aid provided by companies to employees in order to help them in the practice of a sport as "a benefit in kind", and which would therefore increase social security contributions.

"This amendment goes back to the device adopted in Parliament in the law on the acceleration and simplification of public action and is proving to be highly detrimental to access to and the practice of sport in France," writes the CNOSF.

This amendment reintegrates into the calculation of the social security contribution base, any advantage granted by an employer or a works council for the benefit of employees so that they can practice a sporting activity (access to a sports hall, membership at a sports club…).

A brake on access to the practice of sport?

In other words, a company contribution to the practice of sport by its employees will be assimilated to a benefit in kind.

With this government amendment which adds additional brakes to access to the practice of sport for employees in our country, we are far from getting closer to the objective of making France a sporting nation.

This measure is incomprehensible for the sports movement, when we know the many benefits for health and well-being at work from the practice of regular physical activity and sport.

The WHO notes that physical inactivity is the cause of 10% of mortality in Europe.

On average, a young person today takes 30 seconds longer to run 1,000 meters than it did 50 years ago.

With less than four years from the organization of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in our country, it is time for everyone to realize that physical inactivity is a real time bomb for our country and to act accordingly.

This measure is all the more detrimental in the period of health crisis that we are going through and where we have learned that people who practice regular physical activity are better equipped to resist Covid-19, as well as cardiovascular diseases.

The sudden stop of sports associations in a good number of territories, decided on because of the upsurge in the circulation of the virus, will have dramatic consequences on the health of our fellow citizens.

In this context, “the government's position is not likely to encourage the return to sports practice of the French and we regret it.

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It is likely that the CNOSF will now turn to Roxana Maracineanu, the Minister for Sports, to ask her to remove this measure.