A “Trojan horse of social regression”. This is how sixteen personalities on the left, including ecologists Yannick Jadot and Eric Piolle, have designated the monetization of RTTs in a column published on Sunday in the JDD. This measure is part of the amending finance billadopted at first reading by the National Assembly, Wednesday 27 July. This provision, proposed by the LR deputies, and voted by the presidential majority, was the subject of lively debate within the left, which denounces in particular an attack on the 35 hours. It is preparing to be debated in the Senate from this Monday, August 1.
>> What is contained in the amending finance bill adopted by the Assembly
What does this measure consist of?
The measure voted by the deputies is simple: it allows any employee who benefits from RTT (days of rest granted when the weekly working time exceeds 35 hours) not to ask them and to convert them into salary. Concretely, this opens up the possibility for companies to buy back from employees the rest days they have decided to give up.
This measure aims to “encourage the buy-back by the company of RTT for employees who want to work more”specifies Bruno Retailleau, president of the LR group in the Senate, in an interview with the Parisian. It will be limited in time: companies will be able to buy back the RTTs of their employees between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023. In addition, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire has requested that the monetization of RTTs, exempt from taxes and contributions, be capped at 7,500 euros.
Currently, RTT days are lost when they are not taken by employees. Their repurchase is authorized on an ad hoc basis, within the framework of company agreements. These include the Time Savings Account (CET) set up in some companies and allowing the employee to set aside his unused rest days for later or to be paid for them.
Where did the idea of RTT monetization come from?
The measure was part of a series of amendments proposed by the right to “better reward work and merit and increase the net salaries of French people”. The presidential majority, through Marc Ferracci (LREM), then presented its own amendment to limit the measure in time. It is the latter that was voted on July 22 in the Assembly. This time limit “must allow reflection and consultation on an even more ambitious system”explained the deputy of the majority.
The idea of monetizing RTTs was already in the presidential program of former LR candidate Valérie Pécresse. The current president of the Ile-de-France region proposed, within the framework of a “purchasing power shock” of “allow employees to convert more RTT into salarywithout limit and without charge (including free of employer’s charge)”she detailed in her program.
I propose a purchasing power shock.
I will completely tax-exempt all overtime without restriction or ceiling and I will also allow the RTT to be converted into salary, without limit or employer charges. #FranceInTheEyes #Pecresse2022 pic.twitter.com/0TIAkiq1wx
— Valerie Pécresse (@vpecresse) January 18, 2022
Flagship proposal of the right, the idea of the repurchase of the RTT by the employers had emerged with Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. In the continuity of its motto “Work more to earn more”the president at the time had proposed, in an interview with TF1, on November 29, 2007, “that all employees who agree with the company manager can transform the days of RTT into money”.
Why is she debating?
During the examination of the law in the Assembly, on July 22, the amendment was adopted by 154 votes against 55, all the deputies of the Nupes present opposing the text.
On the left side of the assembly, the measurement went wrong. “It’s the pure and simple end of the 35 hours”worried the socialist deputy Arthur Delaporte. “It’s breaking everything that allows workers who work overtime to have protection and in particular the right to rest”he added.
“You are trying to pass, in an amendment, a total questioning of the 35 hours”, considers @ArthurDelaporte about the proposal made by the LR group to monetize the RTT not taken. #PLFR2022 #DirectAN pic.twitter.com/T6urw7YKqb
—LCP (@LCP) July 22, 2022
Sixteen left-wing personalities subsequently denounced this measure as “a Trojan horse of social regression” in a gallery of JDD. The signatories consider that this provision “increases the bond of subordination between the employee and the employer, weakens the social dialogue in the company and deals an unprecedented blow to the 35 hours”.
Like the left in the Assembly, they castigate a measure that “is mainly used to avoid dealing with the real subject of purchasing power: wage increases”. These personalities, including union representatives from the CFE-CGC and the CFDT Cadres, see “a powerful lever for the employer, allowing him to refuse the allocation of rest days by arguing the payment of these, faced with an employee torn between his need for rest and the improvement of his purchasing power”.
The signatories also relativize the argument defended by the right according to which this repurchase of the RTT would be beneficial for purchasing power. “PTo propose paying RTT increased to 10% rather than overtime increased to 25% is to offer to ‘work a lot more to earn little'”they argue.
Is the measure likely to be adopted?
The amendment voted on July 22 is about to be debated in the Senate, during the examination of the amending finance bill which begins on Monday and must continue on Tuesday. Voted by a majority of LR deputies in the Assembly, the measure on the possibility of buying back the RTT should not experience a major reversal, the right being the majority in the Senate.