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Télétravail: France revises its guidelines on remote-working

In a nod to the fact that the health crisis is far from over, France has revised its guidelines on télétravail, or remote working.

Published: 7 January 2021 15:57 CET

Télétravail: France revises its guidelines on remote-working

Photo: AFP

Before the pandemic, people working remotely from home or another space outside the office was relatively rare in France and all télétravail (remote working) was subject to a strict protocol and agreements in advance between employer and employee.

During the months of lockdown and 'stay home' orders that followed, working from home became the norm for many people, and emergency protocols came into force to increase flexibility on this topic.

Since March 2019, the government's recommendation is that anyone whose job can be done from home should work entirely from home.

In practice, once the first lockdown was lifted in June, many people have gone back to their offices, at least for part of the week. During the second lockdown rules were more relaxed that the first and although people were only supposed to be going to and from work if their job genuinely couldn't be done remotely, in practice there were not many checks on this.

Data from a study the Labour Ministry showed that 12 percent of people in France worked from home for five days a week in November, compared to 25 percent during the first lockdown in March.

Nevertheless, millions of people have been working largely or completely from home for 10 months now and many people have raised concerns about the psychological impact of isolation on those who work and live alone, as well as the impact on aspects of work such as teamwork.

In response to these concerns, the government has revised its home-working protocol to suggest that people go into the workplace for one day per week – if they want to and if their employer agrees.

The revised protocol says: “For employees who are 100 percent remote working, a return to face-to-face work is possible one day per week at most when they express the need, with the agreement of their employer.”

Employers still need to ensure that health protocols are followed in the workplace, from distancing to hand gel availability and wearing masks for people in shared indoor workspaces.

Under the new protocol, meetings and group gatherings are still barred.

“Meetings via audio or videoconference technology should be preferred and face-to-face meetings should remain the exception,” the text reads.

And don't think that your return to the workplace will involve gossiping over coffee with colleagues.

“Limit social interaction in the workplace as much as possible,” the text orders, continuing: “Moments of conviviality bringing employees together in a face-to-face meeting in the professional setting are suspended.”

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With his emphasis on, “strategic autonomy” for Europe in the economy and defence, many see subsequent events like the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine validating Macron’s vision.

But the minister acknowledged that the president’s star power might be “less powerful than in 2019”, when voters last picked the Brussels parliament.

Macron’s popularity has been battered by two years of minority government and contentious reforms on issues including pensions and immigration.

Polls show that inflation driven by successive crises is also a top concern for people feeling the pinch in their weekly shopping.

Surveys point to support in the high teens for Macron’s centrist party, well below the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) at around 30 percent, while the Socialists are snapping at the presidential camp’s heels for second place.

“It would be a real earthquake if the president’s majority came third” in the European elections, said political scientist Bruno Cautres.

The head of the governing party’s list for the elections, the little-known Valerie Hayer, is failing to make an impact, especially in the face of high-profile figures leading the rival lists in the shape Jordan Bardella, 28, for the far right and Raphael Glucksmann for the left.

It now appears Macron is ready to wade into the campaign in person.

On Thursday, Macron “wants to reclaim the initiative, avoid humiliation and try to keep the number-two spot at any cost,” Cautres said, noting that there was little hope his party could overtake the RN.

Heading into the European election, “Macron is hanging on to the core of his base”, said communications consultant Marie d’Ouince, a veteran of French centre-left politics.

“It’s still very early” in the campaign, she added, suggesting that support for the president’s party, “may crystallise bit by bit, but you need the right arguments”.

“We’re organised, we have the right candidate… above all we have the right ideas,” Macron said in Brussels last week alongside Hayer, a sitting MEP who has never held a government post.

For d’Ouince, “with recent international events, since Covid, Europe has become part of everyday life for French people”.

Macron should use the speech to “tally up everything Europe has contributed for France”, she said.

“Macron has always been at the cutting edge on the European question,” lending his voice weight at “a grave moment” for the bloc, Cautres said.

But he will have to remember he is addressing the French voting public, not just a prestigious university or think-tanks in Paris and Brussels.

Macron “has to be simple”, using “sentences… with a subject, a verb and an object,” d’Ouince said, citing a maxim of former president Francois Mitterrand.

“For instance, ‘If we hadn’t had Europe, we wouldn’t have had the vaccines'” against Covid, she suggested.

The eurosceptic, anti-immigrant RN has its riposte to Macron prepared. “This speech, whose content I can anticipate… will also mobilise our voters,” figurehead Marine Le Pen said this week.

She added that RN would call for France’s national parliament to be dissolved for new elections if the president’s party suffers a crushing defeat.

With three years until France’s next presidential election, Macron will hope to avoid setting up the RN for a win after twice selling himself as the man to exclude the far right from power.

He cannot run again in 2027, which adds the challenge of fending off a succession battle in his own camp that could leave him a lame duck.

Recent polls show his approval rating at just below 30 percent, leaving the risk that “his unpopularity wins out and people don’t listen to him”, d’Ouince said.