Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud April 1, 2020. – AFP
The partial unemployment scheme, extended since confinement, can now be “individualized”, subject to validation by company agreement or a favorable opinion from the Social and Economic Committee (CSE), according to an ordinance presented Wednesday in the Council of ministers.
This individualization is being implemented in particular with a view to resuming business activity and will begin to apply in May, according to the entourage of the Minister of Labor, Muriel Pénicaud. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, one in two employees is currently on short-time work, ie 10 million French people.
According to the text of the order, the employer can “ask” to “place only part of the employees of the company, establishment, service or workshop, including those under the same professional category, in position of partial activity or apply to these employees a different distribution of hours worked and not worked, when this individualization is necessary to ensure the maintenance or the resumption of activity ”.
Accelerate recovery
This will be possible on condition that this is validated by “company or establishment agreement or, failing this, agreement or branch agreement, or after favorable opinion of the social and economic committee or the works council” .
According to the entourage of the minister, individualization was not possible until now for reasons of “discrimination”: if the activity was reduced by half, that was “distributed equitably” between employees, for those who make the same thing and are part of the same team or the same establishment.
In addition, the ordinance envisages that the economic and social councils (CSE) see the reduced times for the consultations aiming at resuming the activity. A decree will be published “next week” to reduce “temporarily” and “exceptional and targeted” the maximum time for consultations, said the entourage of Muriel Pénicaud.
Compensation for those working more than 35 hours
The ordinance also allows compensation for hours worked by contract or agreement beyond 35 hours (such as a childminder who worked 45 hours for example), also for “hour packages”. This ordinance also provides that companies which remunerate, partial and complementary activity, their employees beyond 70% of 4.5 Smic, will ultimately pay contributions and social contributions beyond this threshold.
In the viewfinder? Soccer clubs for example. In the absence of competition, they put their players on partial unemployment, and therefore did not pay contributions on the additional allowance. According to a social lawyer interviewed by the AFP, “by putting the club on partial unemployment and maintaining the salary of its professional athletes, the employer will earn between 20 and 30% on average. It’s huge on a club’s payroll. ”
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