“We of course know the vaccination status of our employees”, Jean-Christophe Repon, president of the Confederation of Crafts and Small Businesses (Capeb), said Tuesday January 4 on franceinfo, while new rules came into force the day before for the isolation of positive Covid cases , with a difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated. “There is no legal obligation, but there is a dialogue with the employees, the sites have to be well organized”, he explained.
>> Covid-19: here are the new isolation rules in force from Monday for positive people and contact cases
According to him, these new rules may not encourage non-vaccinated to report positive or contact case. “Of course they won’t if they want to continue producing”, he admitted, adding that his goal was to “protect our employees, our craftsmen but also the individuals where we work”.
Some customers themselves sometimes encourage craftsmen to come, despite contamination. “We are sometimes surprised, some people tell us ‘it does not matter if you are positive or in case of contact, my boiler must be restarted, we will be careful'”, he said. The construction and crafts sector knows “a great activity” currently according to the president of the Capeb, but he also knows important “organizational problems which are really glaring”.
For Jean-Christophe Repon, the disorganization of the construction sector is rapid.
“95% of companies have less than 10 employees in the building industry. As soon as you lose one or two employees, half of the production disappears.”
Jean-Christophe Repon, President of the Confederation of Crafts and Small Businessesto franceinfo
The issue of teleworking arises at the margins in this sector, but he pleads for “benevolence and intelligence” in actions. “The cottage industry has played the game during the crisis, let’s not try to find the fraudsters, nor do we try to cheat the companies”, he said.