Elisabeth Borne, Minister of Labor, January 14, 2021. -

Jacques Witt / SIPA

It has been the government's anti-layoff weapon since the onset of the coronavirus crisis.

The long-term partial activity agreement (APLD) covers more than 6,000 companies at the start of January, 60% of which have fewer than 20 employees.

The government now wishes to place more emphasis on training, a weak point in the system.

“We have 420,000 employees covered in 6,000 companies.

It works beyond what we had imagined, ”said Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne on Friday during a videoconference with managers of SMEs and large groups involved in the process.

Up to 100% compensation

Launched in July, the APLD authorizes a reduction in working hours of up to 40% of non-working hours on average for six to 24 months, subject to a company or branch agreement, validated by the administration and including commitments on employment and training.

The employee receives 70% of his gross remuneration (84% net) on non-working hours.

The company is guaranteed to be compensated at least up to 85% for the duration of the agreement - even if the traditional partial unemployment benefit decreases during the period - or even to 100% as long as this remains the rule for the most affected sectors.

Unanimous observation, the APLD has achieved its objective: to limit job cuts and keep skills in companies affected by the crisis while giving employees a little visibility.

Agreements for SMEs

The first group to have signed an agreement in July covering 6,000 jobs, the engine manufacturer Safran believes that the APLD has given it "a certain serenity" to prepare for the future, according to its HR Director Stéphane Dubois.

At Airbus, “the APLD has made it possible to identify economic and structural difficulties with the social partners.

We were able to preserve 1,500 jobs and this facilitated the signing of a majority agreement on the PES ”, for its HR Director Donald Fraty.

But the APLD is also used by SMEs, which can now rely on 39 branch agreements.

Several of them nevertheless regretted the impossibility in an APLD agreement "to individualize working time" among the employees of the same team, whereas certain positions are very specific.

Some admitted that they had not invested much in training, despite the 100% coverage of educational costs by the government for companies with less than 300 employees.

The training component to be improved

"When you adjust the activity month by month, it's very difficult to plan training," says Karine Plaza, HR Director of Locaboat, specializing in river cruises.

Sandrine Ceccaldi, who runs the Napoleon Hotel in Ajaccio, has negotiated a six-month agreement with her eleven employees but “has little space to free up time.

I am the one who trains them if necessary ”.

On the contrary, at the plastics manufacturer Dedienne, a subcontractor in aeronautics and the automobile industry, "a third of the workforce was able to do training" during their partial unemployment, the company supplementing the salary to 100% for the employees. committing to it, said his HR Director Benjamin Verger.

Elisabeth Borne said she understood that, "in the crisis, not everyone has the head to develop a training component in SMEs."

To encourage them to do so, the Ministry of Labor will sign agreements with Competence Operators - responsible for supporting the training needs of SMEs in their sector - so that they can prepare more qualitative courses.

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Coronavirus: Long-term partial activity, the invincible weapon against layoffs?

  • Elisabeth Borne

  • Coronavirus

  • Society

  • Economic crisis

  • Unemployment