INTERVIEW
And the debate resurfaces: should we work more or less, after the confinement imposed to fight against the coronavirus, in order to raise the economy? It was the proposal of the boss of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, who last month defended a case-by-case negotiation to derogate from labor law. Criticized by the other social partners, he then changed his mind. But on Wednesday, the economist of the Montaigne Institute Bertrand Martinot takes up this idea and advances on Europe 1 several proposals to raise the economy, resulting from a note of his institute (see box below).
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Everything starts, according to the economist and former social advisor at the Élysée Palace, from an observation: "Companies are suffering colossal losses and will have very significant productivity losses", he deplores. "There are going to be topics on pay and working hours."
"Arrangements" to find
Instead of letting companies and their employees deal with current labor law, "which already allows a great deal of flexibility for social dialogue", Bertrand Martinot recommends "an increase on a case-by-case, decentralized basis, of working time which can allow to preserve employment and purchasing power. "
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"It is not a question of blowing up the legislation on working time", nor of "going back to the 39 hours or doing the 35 hours backwards", defends the representative of the Montaigne Institute, liberal think-tank . According to him, it is necessary "to introduce a possibility of deferred income, like paying buybacks of RTT days in a deferred manner, via participation and profit-sharing mechanisms next year" because "work has to pay anyway". "We have to find working time-remuneration arrangements that benefit everyone", advocates the economist.
Measured "sacrifices"?
What form could this adaptation on a case-by-case basis take? "With autonomous employees, in teleworking for example, you can pick up your children at 4.30pm and reconnect at 9.30pm and work until 10.30pm", imagine for example Bertrand Martinot, according to whom this "norm" of daily rest 11 consecutive hours "is no longer fully respected, telework executives know this very well."
It is at the cost of temporary adaptations that productivity starts again, according to the Montaigne Institute, that we can "avoid the collapse of the economy," says Bertrand Martinot. Which downplayed the breadth of his nine proposals: "Historically, the French have been asked to make far more sacrifices than what is proposed in this modest note."
Details of the measures proposed by the Montaigne Institute
The liberal think tank proposes to "soften some persistent legal obstacles" by allowing companies to "derogate from the minimum daily rest time of 11 hours minimum per day as part of an agreement on the right to disconnect", or by authorizing the employer "on a temporary basis (for example until 2022) to impose the redemption of RTT days for fixed-rate employees without supplements".
The Montaigne Institute also wants "an increase in working time without the corresponding additional remuneration being paid immediately by the companies". For example, by integrating overtime payment "into the formula for calculating the minimum participation reserve paid the following year", or even later.
Other measures forbidden: the abolition of Ascension Thursday as a public holiday, by keeping the schools open, and the abolition in 2020 of the first week of All Saints' school holidays.
The civil service is the subject of several proposals, such as the temporary increase in working hours for civil servants in essential sectors "in return for additional remuneration and after consultation with the trade unions". To be credible, the state should first pay off unpaid overtime, suggests the Institute.
The note also advocates "increasing the categories eligible for day packages in the public service" and temporarily reducing the number of RTT.