As of Thursday, employees who, until now, performed all their tasks remotely, will be able to return to the company one day a week, if they so request.
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Teleworking 100% “wherever possible” will no longer be demanded from employers and their staff. From Thursday January 7, employees who, until now, performed all their tasks remotely, will be able to return to the company one day a week, if they so request. The Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, confirmed this decision, Monday, January 4, during a meeting with the social partners, by videoconference. The hypothesis of less strict instructions had already been mentioned in mid-December 2020, but the date, as well as the terms of such an arrangement, were uncertain.
At the end of October 2020, the executive had demanded the use of full-time teleworking, for all functions where this type of organization is applicable. This is an “obligation”, then hammered M me Borne, the objective being to fight the spread of the coronavirus by reducing interactions between individuals and travel in public transport.
Today, the authorities agree to release a little ballast. “It’s a slight relaxation, which responds to employees expressing the need to regain a minimum social life”, confides M me Borne to the World. In an interview with the Sunday Journal of January 3, she had reported “studies” showing that “more than six out of ten employees in 100% telework since November wish to return to the company at least one day a week”. “More than half say they suffer from isolation,” she added. “We have to hear it.”
“Good news”
The “national protocol to ensure health and worker safety will therefore once again be rewritten to allow “80% teleworking” (four out of five days in a week). The new version of this document is expected to be released on Wednesday January 6. However, the government insists that remote activity continues to be used at high doses, in order to slow down the circulation of SARS-CoV-2.
The arbitration formalized Monday evening is “rather positive, “says Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, President of Medef. “We feel that after a while, there is a clear risk of isolation, he observes. This day of relief, as the minister called it, is therefore good news.” For the rest, the “boss of bosses” wants business leaders to rely on the national inter-professional agreement (ANI) concluded at the end of November by the social partners, “in order to negotiate as close as possible to the field, provided that the sanitary situation allows it “. M me Borne’s decision is in “the spirit of what we wanted to keep”, comments François Asselin, the number one of the Confederation of small and medium-sized enterprises: the return of the employee one day per week “will be carried out in the social dialogue, with the agreement of the employer”, he notes.
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