Elisabeth Borne, the Minister of Labor, believes that the return to 100% teleworking would create many inequalities between employees: between those who can exercise their activity while staying at home, often managers, and others, generally less qualified, at the bottom. of the scale. While there are already tensions in companies for wage increases, there is no need to add more. No question either of taking the risk of slowing the economy at a time when it is picking up again, when unemployment is returning to its pre-crisis level, and when the Christmas holidays are preparing.
Elisabeth Borne therefore prefers to encourage business leaders to respect barrier measures and in particular the wearing of masks. She warns against slackening and promises to intensify the controls of the labor inspectorate. But there is no question of reviewing the health protocol in the company which, as we recall, no longer provides for a minimum day of teleworking. Total freedom is left to employers. They organize themselves as they want, unlike the second wave, in October 2020, where they had to resort massively to teleworking on all positions where it was possible. Today, most companies operate under agreements or charters negotiated with unions and which generally set two days of telework per week, not more.
The employers do not want a return to massive teleworking. For Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, President of Medef, “that would be a mistake.” It must be said that after the confinements, employers often had difficulty in bringing employees back to the sites. They don’t want them to go home. In addition, according to them, massive teleworking will not change the health situation since barely 20% of employees occupy teleworking positions.
For once, the unions share this opinion. They especially highlight the difficulties of employees facing 100% teleworking: isolation, psychological distress, material difficulties too, because not everyone has a home in which we can work in good conditions. Not sure, however, that faced with the rise of the epidemic, all these arguments hold for a very long time. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Labor, last September, barely 21% of employees were at least one day in telework. And only 8% teleworked every day.