Employees suspended and deprived of salary because they do not have a complete vaccination schedule or a health pass should they receive the RSA? About fifteen left-wing department presidents oppose it and ask the government to find another solution. Their challenge raises several questions, which franceinfo tries to answer.
Why do unvaccinated employees deprived of employment have to receive the RSA?
Since August 30, some employees must present their health pass to their employer. This concerns in particular people working in restaurants, libraries, cinemas, museums, public transport or shopping centers. In the event of non-compliance with this obligation, these employees may be suspended, recalls the Vie publique site.
Since September 15, certain professions (doctors, midwives, nurses, firefighters, etc.) are also subject to compulsory vaccination. The law provided for a period of tolerance until October 16. But, since that date, the employees concerned must justify to their employer either a complete vaccination schedule, or a medical contraindication to vaccination, or a recovery after contamination with Covid-19. In the event of non-compliance with this obligation, the employee may have his employment contract suspended by his employer, details the Ministry of Labor.
The suspended employee cannot claim unemployment benefit, “common law” applies, argues the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, questioned by AFP. “A person who is without resources must be able to benefit from national solidarity, from support such as the RSA or another social minimum”, argues the ministry. The latter denies having set up a “new device” for suspended personnel.
Why do some department presidents refuse this provision?
The socialist president of the Loire-Atlantique departmental council, Michel Ménard, has “received from the Family Allowance Fund this state decision saying that unvaccinated people saw their resources neutralized and actually fell into the RSA”, relates on France Bleu Landes its Landes counterpart, Xavier Fortinon.
The PS presidents of the departmental councils of Loire-Atlantique, Landes, but also Gironde, Gers, Seine-Saint-Denis, Aude, Tarn, Nièvre, Lozère, Haute-Vienne, Pyrénées-Orientales, Ariège, Lot-et-Garonne, Côtes-d’Armor and Haute-Garonne have therefore written to the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, to inform him of their “disagreement”.
“The RSA being a device of departmental competence (…), it is not acceptable that a decision relating to its management be taken without consultation with the departments”, they denounce in their letter. The state “make a decision, which I do not comment on, but assume it and not ask others to pay for it”, castigates the Landais Xavier Fortinon on France Bleu.
The fifteen socialist presidents of departments consider the allocation method to be unfair. “The payment of the RSA is based on the income of the last three months: generally, an absence of income or too low income, exhibit at Release the president of the Gironde, Jean-Luc Gleyze. However, allowing anyone deprived of a job, because they have not been vaccinated, to access the RSA necessarily leads to inequality. An executive, well paid, but who does not want to be vaccinated, could touch the RSA. “
Another objection raised by Jean-Luc Gleyze: “The RSA is an allowance, but which also induces support measures and integration into employment, through the employment contract signed between the beneficiary and the department. How to consider a support contract for a person who – by definition – is not going to be employable? “
What other solution do they offer?
Rather than the RSA, the presidents of departments plead for “temporary unemployment benefit”, “more just”, details the Girondin Jean-Luc Gleyze in Release. The health pass is not, in fact, intended to become a lasting device. Similarly, the suspension of these employees may be temporary, they may for example be reinstated once vaccinated.
“If they stay a short time at Pôle Emploi, at that time, they will find work without too much difficulty. If they had to stay there for a long time because the health issue lasts, they could one day switch to the field of RSA beneficiaries. And quite legitimately, we would recover them at that time. It would be at the end of a process which corresponds to the common law of job loss “, describes the PS president of Gironde. Department presidents suggest that such an allocation be funded “via social contributions or national solidarity”.
“Unemployment insurance guarantees employees their income, with about 70% of their last salary, which is much more than the RSA for a full time”, underlines in The Parisian the president of Seine-Saint-Denis, Stéphane Troussel, also considering that “it is this national solidarity mechanism (…) in the event of job loss that should be mobilized”.
How many suspended employees are affected?
Hard to say. “At the moment, we have no data”, recognizes in Release Jean-Luc Gleyze. “We should know company by company the number of people who have not been vaccinated, those who will be suspended”, he notes. Some companies have also chosen to finance PCR and antigen tests, which have become chargeable for unvaccinated adults. Others have assigned employees affected by the health pass at work to tasks where they are no longer in contact with the public.
For the health sector alone, the vaccination obligation concerns around 2.7 million workers. But only a tiny minority did not comply with this constraint. The Minister for Autonomy, Brigitte Bourguignon, told the National Assembly that 7,930 caregivers were suspended in France on October 20. But less than a week later, during a hearing in the Senate on the “health vigilance” bill, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, added that “two-thirds of suspended caregivers returned to work once vaccinated”.