According to Article L.4121-1 of the French Labor Code, the employer must “take the necessary measures to ensure the safety and protect the physical and mental health of workers”. The jurisprudence of the Court of Cassation has become more flexible, this obligation of prevention being today “of reinforced means”, and no longer “of result”. The mere realization of the risk is no longer sufficient to convict the employer. Regarding Covid-19, the Ministry of Labor, while affirming that it is not the responsibility of the company “to guarantee the absence of any exposure of employees to risks”, specifies that it must “avoid them no more possible”. For employers, the application of changing health rules can quickly turn into a puzzle. A brief overview of the different obligations.
Companies must equip themselves to implement the sanitary protocol in their premises. On March 9, with the blessing of employers’ organizations, the site is launched entrepreneurspourlarepublique.com. Its initiator, Leonidas Kalogeropoulos (Mediation & Arguments), presents the platform as a “social network of general interest” allowing companies to exchange free of charge on practical initiatives concerning the fight against the pandemic. Note that there are already other platforms, often of a commercial nature. Like stopcovid19.fr which allows you to buy masks or hydroalcoholic gel wholesale.
Since February 25, employees aged 50 to 64 inclusive, with comorbidities (obesity, diabetes, heart failure, cancer, etc.), can be vaccinated. For the time being, employers mainly have a role of informing all employees about this possibility. Because, in practice, they are the occupational physicians or the occupational health services business-to-business companies that can deploy – this is not an obligation – these campaigns. Only AstraZeneca vaccine can be given as two injections four to twelve weeks apart. This vaccination must be voluntarily chosen, explicit and confidential. It is therefore forbidden to target this or that employee, to impose a vaccination or to monitor the number of vaccinated employees. Good news for business leaders, they have no additional costs to bear in principle, but are supposed to guarantee the proper operational deployment (dedicated room, means of conservation, etc.) of the campaign, if it is carried out on their premises.
Companies can organize screening campaigns. But beware, the conditions, detailed in an interministerial circular of 14 December, are strict. After having previously declared their screening action online on the National portal to, the employer can neither force his employees to participate, nor count the number of volunteers, nor have access to the results of tests carried out by authorized health professionals. He must also bear all the costs incurred. Tested positive, the employee is required to notify his employer as soon as possible.
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Minister Elisabeth Borne insists: 100% teleworking for employees who can “must remain the rule”. For the others, it is up to the employer to “set the applicable rules” in terms of “gauge” per office, smoothing of schedules or even flow management, “within the framework of local social dialogue”. “There will be sanctions”, warns the Minister of Labor who announces reinforced controls of the labor inspectorate. The fact remains that no law imposes a systematic practice of teleworking.
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