How to negociate during the lockdown?

 

The emergency law allows companies to impose one week's paid leave to their employees but requires that this should be done through an agreement with the employees’ representatives. (Voir notre article sur le sujet).

Nevertheless, negotiating during the lockdown can be a real obstacle course... This is why the Ministry of Labour has updated its "question-and-answer" document in order to bring operational flexibility to this negotiation.

It states that :

• If precautions are respected (barrier gestures, distancing, etc.) and if the consultation is of an emergency nature (response to a health crisis, obligations arising from a legal or conventional imperative), then the negotiation is done in person.
• However, it is possible to organize these meetings remotely, as long as they are conducted collectively. Videoconferencing or, if not possible, audioconferencing are considered as the tools for holding these meetings, as long as they allow all parties to follow and participate in the discussion.

These agreements may be signed by electronic means, provided that the technical device chosen guarantees "the identification of the signatory and his link with the signed act and the impossibility of subsequently modifying the data".

However, the agreement can also be signed manually, after the agreement has been sent to each party. Each negotiator is responsible for signing it, scanning it and sending it back. Then it will be necessary to assemble all the pages signed by all the parties into a single PDF file and submit the agreement via the tele-procedure.

 

What about VSEs and SMEs?

Indeed, in companies with less than 11 employees, or companies with less than 20 employees without a SEC (Social and Economic Committee), or when the agreement is signed with mandated employees, the agreement can be submitted to the employees for approval.

But how can a ratification be organised when it is recommended not to bring together all the employees?

The Ministry of Labour points out that remote employee's approval of a draft agreement can be set up via an electronic device (c. trav. art. D. 2232-2 and R. 2232-10), the procedures to be followed being then the same as those to be followed for an electronic vote during the election of the SEC (c. trav. art. R. 2314-5 et seq.).

In this case the electronic device put in place must in particular guarantee the confidentiality of the vote and the signature of the persons consulted, in order to avoid the multiple voting.

For several years BDO has been developing a partnership with a service provider specializing in electronic voting. We can therefore support you in this electronic voting process

 

“Our experts are constantly monitoring regulatory changes providing support to businesses. Our articles are updated by midday on the basis of press releases and the publication of decrees by official bodies, which are deciphered by our experts. There may sometimes be a couple of hours delay between the official texts and our publication, the purpose of which is to provide you with preliminary answers to your questions."