The concern is at its height among business leaders. For some, it is all their employees that they had to place in partial unemployment for lack of work to give them. This is the case of Emmanuel Grandière, director of GEFM, a transport company with 17 employees. Activity fell between 2 and 5%. In question: the coronavirus, which pushes its customers to stay at home. He testified to his difficulties on Friday morning on Europe 1.
Indeed, GEFM, based in La Croix Saint Ouen, in Oise, a department very affected by the epidemic, transports passengers to Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Beauvais airports (40% of its activity) and provides transportation school for disabled children. But in the Oise, schools did not reopen last Monday and Emmanuel Macron announced, Thursday evening, the closure of all schools "until further notice".
"The President of the Republic made the necessary decisions" but ...
As a result, GEFM's turnover plunged 95%. "Especially since we were in peak periods. We were leaving school holidays on March 1st," laments Emmanuel Grandière. On Monday, he was forced to lay off all of his drivers. "We had no choice," he sighs. "We will have to declare each week the hours that have not been worked".
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"For now, we have the funds to hold a month, but we will not have the funds to hold two," he said. Faced with this observation, which many employers are facing, Emmanuel Macron promised that it would be possible for them to defer taxes and contributions for the month of March, without having to provide any supporting documents. A decision that reassures Emmanuel Grandière a little: "I think the President of the Republic made the necessary decisions", he comments, seeing in it the opportunity for companies to breathe. But the boss hopes that the head of state will go further.
"We will find people who are unemployed and in difficulty"
"We are facing a problem which is the coronavirus. This problem, today, concerns everyone, business managers or employees. If they do not give us a boost, we will not be able to restart and if we do not restart, we will find people who are unemployed and in difficulty ", deplores the man who feels concern mounting among his employees. "It worries them, I worry. On Monday, when I gathered everyone to declare short-time working, we talked about it all together and we said we hoped it wouldn't last for years. months, "he says.
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And among the gestures expected from the president, Emmanuel Grandière hopes that the state will soon fully compensate the wages of unemployed employees. For now, this compensation will be up to 8.04 euros, said the CEO who would like to see this question clarified. "I would like him to clarify the situation a little bit at that level because we are drivers anyway so we can't make them work telework", he analyzes, before adding : "We, business leaders, we only ask that to make people work".