Paris (AFP)

Faced with travel that will be difficult from Thursday with the transport strike, many companies will use telework, "massive development" in recent years, or various developments to continue their business.

"Employees could be in difficulty to reach their place of work, but we facilitate telework, both at home and in other sites of the company," says one in Orange, which will equip its employees to ensure the continuity of the telephone service.

At Société Générale, too, "teleworking capabilities have been strengthened so that more employees who do not have alternative or critical transportation solutions can work from home".

According to Patrick Barbe of Neuberger Berman Asset Manager, "in all management boxes there is now the possibility to work where you are, we have secure remote connections that go through broadband connections".

More generally "the underlying trend is the massive development of teleworking in France," says Vincent Binetruy, France director of the Top Employers Institute.

"Today at the national level, about 25% of companies that practice teleworking", according to this body of certification of good practices in human resources.

But remote work has its limits, first of all related to the type of activity. Production requiring equipment other than a computer and a broadband line is a priori excluded. Personal services too.

"A building site will not be done by internet, the bread will not knead without baker", stresses AFP François Asselin, the president of the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME).

On the other hand, employers are still often reluctant to telework, Binetruy explains.

A "brake that is real, it is the behavioral changes", because "we do not work the same way remotely as when we are side by side", according to this expert. He cites videoconferences for which those who are not used to it sometimes have a hard time not talking all at the same time.

- carpooling and schedules -

Another obstacle, "is that when you're at a distance, you can not control that the employee is working," says Binetruy, who pleads for employers to trust their employees, because it brings "productivity generally better ".

Employees - and they remain numerous - who will still be forced to go to the usual workplace during the strike are often called to carpool.

"Air France encourages its employees to go on a carpooling platform dedicated to the sites of the airline in Ile-de-France" and which are also members of other large companies (DHL, Fedex, La Poste, Keolis, ADP ...) working near or on the site of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport. "The journeys are free for the passengers on the carpools", specifies Air France.

Many companies say they are prepared to be understanding about work schedules, although the law does not require them to do so, a strike with notice is not considered a case of force majeure.

At Societe Generale, it is stated that "instructions have been issued to be more flexible on the hours and the organization of work for employees who have difficulty to get to their place of work".

In Engie, where teleworking is also encouraged, we say we are ready to "adapt if necessary the arrival and departure times in the workplace". Like other employers, the gas and electricity supplier asks its employees to "consider taking time off or RTT days".

In some companies, we can also "recover the hours not done in the coming weeks," says Asselin.

Because transport problems and staff absences could disrupt production, warns the president of the CPME.

"What we can not deliver on D-Day, we can deliver it on D + 1 or D + 2 and warn our customers, it's a whole supply chain, our suppliers do the same".

© 2019 AFP