wanting to reduce recourse after dismissal is “shameful”, criticizes the CGT

Sophie Binet points out that it is impossible in two months to gather the necessary file elements.

Want to reduce to two months, compared to one year currently, the time limit for filing an appeal against a company in the event of dismissal, “it is shameful”, criticized Sophie Binet Monday December 11 on franceinfo. The general secretary of the CGT reacted to a proposal from the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, made on Saturday December 2, in the columns of Parisian.

“It is impossible to prepare a legal file and go to the industrial tribunal to have your rights respected” in such a short time, according to the CGT representative. “When you are fired, it is very violent. You have a lot of things to put in place to reach the level of yourself and your family. And therefore you wonder if you are going to take legal action against your employer or not, that’s what’s more, you have to find a lawyer, you have to put together the file, etc.”

The real problem which undermines the unemployment rate, 7.4% in the third quarter according to INSEE, is that “the number of industrial tribunal procedures has fallen, employers dismiss people when they want and how they want, and employees no longer have the means to enforce their rights”, regrets Sophie Binet. The general secretary of the CGT advises the government instead “to prevent unfair dismissals which are legion today”.

Reforming conventional termination, another challenge to employee rights

Another government proposal which irritates Sophie Binet and the CGT, that of Élisabeth Borne, who wishes to reform the conventional termination. “There are 500,000 per year,” emphasized the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, Sunday December 10 on France Inter. “Once again, it is the employees who will be the victims of the joke. Because if we put an end to conventional terminations, when it is on their initiative and they want to leave, they will be forced to resign and therefore to leave without compensation and without access to unemployment benefits”. What the CGT has been recommending since “15 years old”, recalls Sophie Binet, it is “regulate the conventional termination to avoid abuse, because there are a certain number of employers who abuse”.

This is once again a measure against employees, according to the general secretary of the CGT, since “employers no longer need the contractual termination. They can dismiss employees very easily without risking conviction (…) Questioning the conventional termination means calling into question the rights of employees”summarizes Sophie Binet. “Because in a third to half of cases, the conventional termination is at the request of employees who want to leave their company and devote themselves to a new professional project.”