Teleworking often leads to consuming more electricity at home.
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VALERY HACHE / AFP
Teleworking has imposed itself on many companies and employees in 2020, and this situation continues in 2021.
20 Minutes
has collected testimonials from its readers on the resulting costs.
The rules concerning employee compensation are debated among the lawyers we contacted.
The social context makes it difficult to dispute the assumption of costs linked to teleworking.
Since March 2020, willy-nilly, teleworking has gradually become the norm in many companies, due to the coronavirus.
For employees forced to stay at home, this upheaval has often been synonymous with new expenses: table and / or armchair to be able to work comfortably, ink cartridges and reams of paper to print documents, heating during the day to avoid get a cold…
Thus, according to Capital, which had access to data from the supplier Engie, “between October 25 and November 25, 2020 [during the second confinement], households on average consumed + 35% of gas and + 20% of electricity. , compared to the same period in 2019 ”.
"I had to buy myself an office chair"
And very often, this increase in costs is the sole responsibility of the employees, as shown by the numerous testimonials received by
20 Minutes
.
“My employer refuses to put his hand in his pocket,” wrote Alice.
To be teleworked, we were even obliged to sign an amendment where we had to forgo reimbursement ”.
“I need to work with several screens and obviously, with winter, I have to put the heating on, explains Solène, cartographer.
All of this made the bill go up, but my employer did not like being asked about the costs.
"
"I had to buy myself an office chair because the furniture in my home is not suitable for long-term teleworking and caused back pain," adds Bertrand, 50-year-old project manager.
My employer does not cover any costs.
"" Despite the use of my printer, my paper, my ink cartridges, stamp costs and an increase in the EDF bill, I did not receive any compensation!
»Protests Frédérique, social worker.
Companies on a case-by-case basis
Some employees are doing a little better.
Often these are people employed in large groups.
Sandrine explains, for example, that Thalès “covers the reimbursement of internet costs upon presentation of an invoice up to an amount of 38 euros”.
This also concerns those who were already teleworking before confinement, and whose practice is better supervised.
“I am constantly teleworking from my home.
I have 15 euros in compensation for occupancy of the premises, 20 euros for internet costs, and 41.67 euros for teleworking bonus, ”testifies Jean-Paul, specialist in computer-assisted programming.
What to dream of all those who expect a gesture from their employer.
What is striking in these testimonies is above all the extreme diversity of business practices.
The explanation is simple: there is a legal vagueness.
Before 2017, everything was (relatively) clear.
Article 1222-10 of the Labor Code indeed specified that “the employer [was] required with regard to the teleworking employee (…) to bear all the costs arising directly from the exercise of teleworking”.
But the Macron ordinances went through this and removed this provision.
Case law in favor of employees
Many employers are therefore relying on this legislative development to refuse to open their wallets.
But they are not necessarily right, warns Nicolas Perrault, lawyer and former president of the bar of Versailles: “The employer must provide the working tools to the employee so that he can accomplish his task.
It is an essential principle.
It also means that the employer must reimburse the employee for the costs he incurred in the course of his work.
It doesn't matter whether or not we are in an exceptional period.
"
In other words, even in a time of a pandemic, employees who are teleworked overnight remain entirely justified in requesting the reimbursement of certain expenses: “it may be an internet subscription, a telephone plan or even the purchase of office supplies (ink, paper).
Case law is constant on this point ”explains
Valérie Duez-Ruff, lawyer at the Paris bar,
to
20 Minutes
.
Employees can in particular rely on this 2010 judgment of the social chamber of the Court of Cassation which indicates that "the costs that an employee justifies having incurred for the needs of his professional activity and in the interest of the employer must be reimbursed to him without being able to be deducted from the remuneration due to him ”.
The blur of fees
Obviously, the scope remains to be precisely defined.
If the paper or the ink may seem obvious, for example, as some of our readers want, should part of the electricity or gas bill be included?
For Nicolas Perrault, “as teleworking is practiced, for many companies, in specific circumstances linked to the pandemic, there is no absolute obligation to cover expenses linked to housing.
"Nevertheless, he continues," teleworking will surely last for the next few years.
With fewer employees present in the offices at the same time, companies will therefore be able to reduce their surface areas, and thus save money.
It would therefore seem normal for there to be compensation for teleworking employees ”.
To make life easier for businesses and prevent employees from keeping their smallest invoices, Urssaf has posted an indicative scale online.
It allows employers to pay a teleworking allowance of up to 50 euros per month and per employee, exempt from social contributions.
The only downside: teleworking must be framed by an agreement or collective agreement within the company, which is not always the case.
So much for the theory.
In reality, few employees go to the industrial tribunal to obtain reimbursement.
"The fear of losing a job can slow down the eagerness of some to claim more marginal costs" recognizes Nicolas Perrault.
A claim that is all the more difficult to make in view of the very tense economic context and the very gloomy outlook which weighs on employment in 2021. Difficult, in fact, to claim reimbursement of expenses when one's company is planning or has already planned to lay off or reduce its activity.
In addition, the last national inter-professional agreement on teleworking concluded last November remains very vague on the issue of costs.
Non-binding, the text is limited to recalling the need for the employer to cover professional costs, without further details.
“We can no longer be satisfied with case law, pleads Nicolas Perrault.
We need a framework, a law, to allow those who are not in a strong position to be helped ”.
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