“We are moving from a medicine of aptitude to a medicine of prevention” declared the Secretary of State for Pensions and Occupational Health to summarize the content of a reform of the occupational health system. This Friday, January 22, Laurent Pietraszewski met the teams of AIST 21 in Dijon.
The social partners signed on January 8 a national inter-professional agreement (ANI) intended to reform the occupational health system. The text is the subject of three main axes: the prevention of occupational risks in companies, the fight against professional withdrawal (a concept that does not exist in the Labor Code) and the promotion of the quality of life at work. .
To make this new agreement better known, Laurent Pietraszewski, Secretary of State to the Minister of Labor, Employment and Integration, in charge of pensions and health at work, came to Dijon, this Friday 22 January 2021, meet the teams of the Interprofessional Association for Occupational Health of the Côte d’Or.
The Secretary of State was greeted by the association’s presidency, Sandrine Vannet. Among the delegation were notably present the prefect of the Côte-d’Or Fabien Sudry, the LREM deputies of the Côte-d’Or Fadila Khattabi, Didier Martin and Didier Paris as well as the vice-president of the regional council of Bourgogne-Franche- Comté Océane Charret-Godard (PS), the vice-president of the departmental council of Côte-d’Or Emmanuelle Coin (LR) and the vice-president of Dijon Métropole François Tenenbaum (PS).
Transversality and multidisciplinarity within AIST 21
With 138 professionals spread over some thirty medical centers, AIST 21 has an occupational medicine mission with 11,500 companies with employees in Côte-d’Or, representing 127,200 employees. 83% of these companies have less than ten employees. AIST 21 notably mobilizes 44 occupational physicians and 21 occupational health nurses. It is one of the most important occupational health services in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region.
AIST 21 professionals began by presenting the actions to adapt to the context of the Covid-19 epidemic. Regarding innovations, the demonstration of the usefulness of a virtual reality device to tackle the problem of the ergonomics of workstations or premises has marked the spirits. The working methods of the AIST 21, giving pride of place to transversality and multidisciplinarity, aroused the interest of the Secretary of State in charge of pensions and occupational health.
“Occupational health cannot be just a medicine of fitness”
At the end of these discussions, Laurent Pietraszewski returned to what founded the new ANI: “The social partners wanted to build this over time. There was a desire, in particular from the majority deputies, to be actors in this development in occupational health. The social partners have clearly seen the common interest in making things happen. (…) It is always a victory for parity in our country when we have an agreement. The role of deputies will be to transpose this agreement into law ”.
The Secretary of State underlines the future role of the Côte-d’Orienne Fadila Khattabi, president of the Social Affairs Commission of the National Assembly. The majority deputies have tabled a bill in the National Assembly which will be examined in the coming months for a desired entry into force in March 2022.
“We must enter into a logic of prevention”
“There is a need to change things” adds Laurent Pietraszewski; “Occupational health cannot be just a medicine of aptitude” referring to the prevention and support actions highlighted by the professionals of AIST 21.
The government representative was enthusiastic about the presentation made: “they are involved in prevention: be upstream. They also have work on professional disinsertion: once people have left the company because they no longer have the capacity to do the job, we think about how we offer them something. It is better to think ahead to prevent them from leaving the company and, therefore, to offer them another job or to help them train ”.
“This is what we expect from occupational medicine: that it is in the field, alongside employers and employees to support and prevent them. We are following a somewhat historical logic in our country of repair. (…) We have to get into a prevention logic: we identify the risks, we reduce them, we eliminate them and we follow things so that the employee is as little exposed as possible. (…) We are moving from a medicine of aptitude to a medicine of prevention ”summarizes Laurent Pietraszewski.
“Experienced employees cannot be an adjustment variable”
At the end of the morning, a round table at the prefecture in Dijon made it possible to discuss the good practices of State services as well as companies on the work of seniors. Laurent Pietraszewski stresses that “experienced employees cannot be an adjustment variable for changes in production or the economic fabric. (…) They have knowledge, they have skills and these are real resources. When we have adjustments and we propose voluntary departure plans that are targeted at older employees, we can clearly see that we are losing skills in companies ”.
Some companies nevertheless manage to change their organization while keeping experienced employees in place and associations or groups support older employees to return to employment.
Senator from Côte-d’Or François Patriat (LREM) joined the delegation for this sequence while, around the table, representatives of DIRECCTE Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Pôle Emploi Côte-d’Or, SDAT, Restos du Coeur, UIMM Côte-d’Or, APRR and Enedis were able to provide their testimony on the work of seniors.
Jean-Christophe Tardivon
–
