The boss of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux.

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BERTRAND GUAY

After three weeks of negotiations and four days of intense negotiations, Medef managed to obtain, this Thursday, the "favorable opinion" of the CFDT, Force Ouvrière, CFE-CGC and CFTC, but not that of the CGT, for its draft national inter-professional agreement (ANI) on teleworking.

"This negotiation ends positively", estimated Hubert Mongon, the social negotiator of Medef, at the end of a final meeting.

Handed over by employers on Thursday, the “final” text adds details on the implementation of teleworking in crisis situations (pandemic, natural disasters, destruction of a company's premises) or on the assumption of costs.

A text "neither normative nor prescriptive"

Also covering traditional teleworking, it is supposed to complement the previous ANI, signed in 2005. The favorable trade unions, but also the CGT, still have to collect the blank check from their respective bodies and have until December 23 to initial the document.

Praising "an operational text", Hubert Mongon listed some "important points", such as double volunteering (of the employer and the employee) or reversibility - which allows an employee to return to his workplace if teleworking does not does not suit him - which however already existed in the ANI 2005.

However, he refused to answer an angry question: is this text binding?

The employers had set the objective, contested by the unions, of making this text "neither normative nor prescriptive".

An ANI "by definition, when it is signed by a majority of professional and employers' organizations, is an agreement that settles in the legal landscape of companies and the country", he stressed.

"As such, it becomes a benchmark agreement and which is intended to be extended" by law, he added.

However, it is on this point that the CGT continues to focus its criticisms, while other organizations no longer make it a casus belli.

"Not revolutionary"

On Wednesday, Fabrice Angéi, the CGT negotiator, warned that he did not see how to sign a non-binding agreement.

“Anything written in it can be bypassed.

It's a big worry, ”he regretted.

The employers reviewed their copy four times in less than a week, to convince the unions who saw in the project mainly "setbacks" for employees.

But for lack of agreement, the government would have been responsible for legislating, some seeing this takeover as "a failure".

As of Wednesday, the CFDT and the CFTC had said they were ready to sign the previous version of the text, which made a series of concessions, while considering that the project was "not revolutionary" in terms of employee rights.

The proposed agreement "is not normative, not binding, but it gives a framework, it will serve as a guide in certain companies", had estimated Wednesday Laurent Berger, secretary general of the CFDT.

This agreement “will give pride of place to social dialogue, which is crucial when we see the diversity of work situations.

Each company will now be able to use this framework to set up teleworking in a sustainable manner, ”said the Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, in a press release.

"An agreement" or "a charter" for teleworking in times of crisis

The document recalls the existing legal framework, in particular that the implementation of teleworking requires a collective agreement, a charter or a mutual agreement between the employer and the employee.

Among the novelties, the unions have succeeded in ensuring that the eligibility of teleworking positions is not the sole responsibility of the employer but is the subject of social dialogue in the company.

With regard to teleworking in times of crisis, the conditions for its implementation will pass through "an agreement" or "a charter".

On the other hand, no support for Internet, heating or electricity costs, as requested by the CGT, but a reminder that the costs “must be borne” by the employer and that this “may be” the subject of a social dialogue in companies.

Since the end of October, teleworking has been “the rule” in companies that can.

Prime Minister Jean Castex stressed Thursday that he had to remain "as massive as possible" in the coming weeks.

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