Matignon is working on a “work COP”

Matignon would like to organize a meeting dedicated to work, a “work COP”, to talk about the fight against work accidents and more flexible organization of working time.

No “social conference” or “Grenelle”, but a “COP” of work. Nothing to do with the climate but rather with the… working environment. Matignon will organize a large meeting with unions, elected officials, civil society actors, but also sociologists to address the relationship with work, which has changed since Covid. Ideally, Matignon would have liked to organize it this week from Monday May 6 to Sunday May 12, but it will rather be next week, because Monday and Tuesday there is already the visit of the Chinese president, then the big bridge of May 8 and the ‘Ascension, where the French will perhaps not be too keen on hearing about work.

In this “work COP”, the fight against workplace accidents will be discussed. They represent two deaths per day in France, recalled Labor Minister Catherine Vautrin on the occasion of May 1. On the table, there will also be the organization of working time, the four-day week, for example. Matignon makes it clear that it is not a question of reducing working hours, but of 35 hours concentrated over four days. In the same spirit there is the idea of ​​the “differentiated week”, if a divorced parent wants to have more time when they have custody of their children.

Work-life balance, personal life

Matignon has in mind that a better balance between professional and private life is a strong aspiration of the French. Of the approximately 10,000 people who participated in a consultation of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), 3/4 believe that the rhythm of five working days, two weekend days is not ideal for a good work-life balance. “It’s the debate of a generation, explains someone close to Gabriel Attal. How do we reorganize our working methods in a more flexible way?” Behind there is also a question of “social justice”to give more freedom to those who have jobs where teleworking is impossible.

This is a positive project that the Prime Minister is embarking on, while in terms of work there has been no major organizational reform since the establishment of the 35-hour week in the 90s. One of Gabriel Attal’s predecessors at Matignon had identified this subject. “We must be interested in the quality of life at work, he confided, to everything that happens before retirement”, and to deliver this recommendation which will perhaps inspire the current Prime Minister: “Let’s de-stress all of this!” With this project, it is also a question of showing that Gabriel Attal is not only the one who wants to tighten the rules of unemployment insurance, with new arbitrations expected in June.