INTERVIEW
While the coronavirus epidemic and containment have severely impacted the economy, can a company force its employees to forgo a number of benefits? Monday, the SNPNC-FO, majority union at Ryanair in France, denounced "a blackmail to dismissal" exercised by the Irish company at low cost on its staff in France to obtain lower wages, using the "pretext "of the coronavirus. Invited Wednesday of Europe 1, the labor lawyer Kévin Mention takes stock of the rules in the matter, and advises the employees concerned to ensure a form of subsequent redistribution of the benefits granted
>> LIVE - Follow the situation on Wednesday June 3
Falling wages, giving up vacations, or even increasing working hours, a boss "can propose this kind of measure", confirms Kévin Mention. But, he specifies, "this must in some cases be directly accepted by the employee. In other cases, it must be negotiated by company agreement or branch agreement". On the other hand, "this can very rarely be imposed unilaterally, except, for example, in the case of taking RTT at certain times of the year. But that remains framed".
The exception must not become the rule
Regarding a proposal similar to that of Ryanair, "it can be done, but it is up to the employee to choose", explains Kévin Mention, who advises the employees concerned to plan with their company "a return to better fortune" clause, to that "the advantage they grant to the company be redistributed to them if it gets better a little later".
For a business owner who would like to ask these employees for efforts, what are the possible levers available to him? "Proposals for lower wages, fixed or variable, the abolition of the 13th month, the transport allowance, the impact on the RTT, many measures can be implemented", details the lawyer, who immediately specifies that "it is necessary that the company really needs it, that it is really understood by the employees, and that the latter have a return when the company is better". Above all, he adds, "the exception must not become the rule on these issues".
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Vaccine, immunity, transmission: four questions still topical on the coronavirus
> Why is hydroxychloroquine rejected by health authorities?
> Coronavirus: 5 mistakes not to make with your mask
> How does StopCovid work? We tested the tracing application in preview
> Statistical corrections, rounded averages ... exceptional measures for the bac 2020
> Why are French nurses among the lowest paid in Europe?
Are these kinds of measures easier to implement in a small or medium-sized business? "It should be", subscribes Kévin Mention, because if social dialogue is strong within a company of this type, "employees can better understand the difficulties, and entrepreneurs explain them more easily. Employees can more easily admit efforts and negotiate counterparts with the employer for after. "