France, a bad student when it comes to teleworking?
"Not really if we compare it to its European neighbors", replies to France 24 Dominique Andolfatto, specialist in trade unionism and professional relations and teacher at the University of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté which is based on recent statistics.
Among the countries where regular teleworking is the most widespread, four countries stand out in the lead, according to a Eurostat study published in March 2020: the Netherlands (14.1%), Finland (14.1%), Luxembourg (11.6%) and Austria (9.9%) have largely democratized this practice on their territory.
On the other hand, Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria (0.5%), Romania (0.8%), Hungary (1.2%) but also Greece (1.9%) or Croatia again (1.9%) are at the bottom of the ranking.
France (7%) is situated in an honorable average ahead of Germany (5.2%), Italy (3.6%) Spain and Portugal.
>> To read: France and teleworking, a complicated story
With the health crisis, the practice of teleworking has exploded in Europe.
Governments have widely encouraged companies to favor this mode of operation to limit social interactions and curb the spread of the coronavirus.
According to a European study carried out in June and July, nearly 40% of all hours worked were at home.
12829 # 1 - Regular teleworking in Europe March 2020
Infogram
The distrust of teleworking in France
In France, during the first containment in the spring, companies also played the game according to the health recommendations of the government.
But as soon as the executive no longer encouraged companies to telework, the latter overwhelmingly asked for the return of their employees who can work on site.
The proportion of employees working from home fell from 27% during confinement to 15% in early August.
While in Britain, teleworking has increased from only 35% during confinement to 29% post-confinement, according to a Yougov poll carried out for the company Cardiosens.
For sociologists, these data can be explained: French managers are fearful at the idea of losing their teams.
Another sign of this French mistrust of teleworking: a large number of companies have refused 100% teleworking as required by the government at the end of October to counter the resurgence of the epidemic.
Forcing the Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, to raise the tone and remind the media on December 1 that in the event of a health crisis, teleworking was “not optional”.
>> To read: Telecommuting and "semi-remote": does the future of work lie outside the office?
According to a Harris Interactive survey, conducted for the Ministry of Labor, 27% of employees said they went to their workplace between November 2 and 8, when their tasks could, according to them, have been carried out at home.
Among the companies involved, there are SMEs but also large companies, some of which have been singled out by the Minister of Labor, such as Total and some in the banking sector.
Following a right of alert, the labor inspectorate intervened at LCL and social dialogue is strained at BNP Paribas on this subject.
I went to my @_DINUM departments to read the counters:
↗️ 70% traffic on the state's digital networks with 2⃣ records this week!
A new sign that #working is progressing in the #public function and that we are giving ourselves the means pic.twitter.com/50GAZ8653H
- Amélie de Montchalin (@AdeMontchalin) November 20, 2020
"Gray" teleworking
It must be said that to this day, the rules for teleworking remain rather vague.
Caught off guard by this crisis, some European countries have all the same already amended their legislation to further protect employees.
In Spain, companies must, since September, establish an individual contract with each telework employee when he is at home for more than a day and a half a week, and specify, among other things, the working hours, the means made available and the form of compensation for the costs generated by the exercise of the activity.
In Portugal, rights for teleworkers were enacted in 2015. All costs generated by professional activity are the responsibility of the employer, internet connection included.
And teleworking cannot be refused in certain cases, for an employee with a child under three years old, for example, says the CGT.
In France, only a third of teleworkers benefit from a regulatory framework - a collective agreement or a company charter - in which a number of methods are specified, such as the time slots during which the employee can be contacted or the conditions for monitoring the employee. work time.
For the remaining two-thirds, a simple verbal agreement with the employer prevails, without a defined framework.
It is the so-called "gray" teleworking.
Teleworking, a new ground of confrontation between unions and employers
The unions want to put an end to this legal vagueness while the employers refuse, for the moment, to negotiate a "normative" and "prescriptive" agreement which would modify the current legal provisions.
The unions, them, refuse to resolve to a simple non-binding document, akin to "a guide to good practices".
This is why negotiations are continuing on Monday 23 November between the social partners in an attempt to establish a legal framework for teleworking.
In the draft "Interprofessional agreement for a successful implementation of telework", which is to set a series of rules, unions and employers have already reached an agreement on dual volunteering (between employer and employee), reversibility (allowing an employee to return to their work site) or even management training in teleworking.
But discussions are stumbling in particular on the eligibility of jobs for teleworking (for the employers, this subject is solely the responsibility of the employer, for the unions on the contrary, this point must fall within the social dialogue in the company) or on the in charge of the costs incurred by the employee.
The CGT claims in particular compensation covering the occupation of part of the accommodation, water, electricity, internet subscription, etc ..., and a contribution to meal costs.
The #teletwork negotiation is not over.
The text presented by Medef includes some progress compared to the previous one which dates from 2005. We need to continue our efforts in order to reach an agreement.
#Thread 1/5
- Union CFTC (@SyndicatCFTC) November 19, 2020
“Before the pandemic, requests for teleworking came from employees, so companies had no particular obligations, but since the company requires its employees to telework, the balance of power has changed, summarizes Dominique Andolfatto. summoned to work at home have the right to demand progress in this area. Just as it is understandable that companies, already weakened by the economic crisis, are reluctant to take on additional burdens. Everyone is right and both parties risk camping out. their positions. "
The fact remains that if negotiations fail at the inter-professional level, the government could take the matter back in hand.
A prospect which does not displease certain unions of employees.
"We want the government to get involved so that there are normative discussions," said Fabrice Angéï of the CGT.
"It comes into the game of preserving the general interest."
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