The Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME) alerted Wednesday on the increase of the cases of refusal of partial unemployment, in spite of the widening of this device by the government vis-a-vis the current crisis induced by the coronavirus.
"In practice, more and more companies are today faced with refusals of partial unemployment on the grounds that their sector is not concerned or that their company is in - theoretical - capacity to continue its activity", affirms CPME in a press release. She thus regrets a “gap” between the government's discourse and “the reality” of the situation experienced by businesses.
Professionals request clarifications
On Wednesday, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire thus affirmed that the system of partial unemployment put in place by the government is "the most generous and the most effective in Europe". Concretely, the government has widely opened this system which compensates an employee up to 70% of gross salary and 84% of net salary, with a State contribution of 100% of this compensation within the limit of 4.5 times the minimum wage. 37,000 companies have already asked to benefit, half of which have less than 10 employees, said Wednesday the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud.
Wednesday evening, the president of the automotive platform, Luc Chatel, also expressed the concern of companies, after a crisis meeting of the sector. While in the automobile industry, “most of the industrial apparatus is at a standstill, the wide implementation of the partial unemployment scheme is vital for the survival of businesses and the safeguarding of employment. It is imperative, in this context, to clarify the application of the partial unemployment scheme, but also to frame, at the same time, the health conditions of the exercise of the activity ”, he declared.
Adapting the state of natural disaster
Earlier, the Senate business delegation had also testified in a press release to "the dismay of traders and entrepreneurs to access the system". This Senate body responsible for bringing up the expectations of companies to elected officials also evokes the situation of those who have the authorization to practice but achieve little turnover.
"Many of them are denied eligibility for partial unemployment", according to its press release, citing in particular the food businesses "faced with a desertion of customers" or the liberal professions. In addition, the CPME called on insurers to cover operating losses at least for VSEs and SMEs, "by extending the state of natural disaster to the health disaster we are going through".
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