Elisabeth Borne calls on companies to set up a “minimum three days” of telework from the start of the school year

Elisabeth Borne wants to move up a gear. The Minister of Labor called on Wednesday, December 22 companies to “accelerate” and to “to strenghten” the use of teleworking in the face of Covid-19. “I ask companies to prepare now to strengthen teleworking at the start of the school year, therefore on January 3, with a target of at least three days for positions that allow it, or even four days when possible”, said the minister on Europe 1.

At present, the sanitary protocol in companies provides that “the employers set, within the framework of the local social dialogue, the methods of appeal” teleworking, adding that “in the context of an epidemic resumption, the target must be two to three days” per week.

Highlighting the “consensus” with trade unions and employers on the need to speed up teleworking, Elisabeth Borne also noted that the Harris Interactive survey carried out regularly by her ministry shows that “nearly 60% of employees who can easily telework (…) did so last week, on average three days a week”. The survey was conducted online from December 15 to 19 with a sample of 2,019 people representative of French people aged 18 and over, among whom 1,166 active workers are represented. It also noted that the controls of the labor inspectorate “are reinforced”, returned to “a rhythm of 5,000 checks per month”.

The minister also confirmed that the government was not planning to include the corporate health pass in the initial draft law on the vaccination pass. But, she added, “We do not know what the situation will be in 10 days and the possible measures that we should have to take, so I want to continue the discussions” with employers’ and trade union organizations and “we will see if parliamentarians consider it relevant to introduce by amendment”.