France: 37% of employees consulted on Covid-19 safety measures

According to survey results from the Direction de l’animation de la recherche, des études et des statistiques (Dares- the research, studies and statistics division operating under the French Ministry of Labour) that were published on 12 July, three quarters of businesses in France have consulted the relevant staff representative bodies, where they exist, on the implementation of Covid-19 adaptation measures (masks, distancing, disinfection, teleworking, etc.), and that number even rises to 95% for companies with more than 500 employees. However only 37% of employees were involved in their management’s decisions, albeit these consultations were more frequent in companies that had not consulted with a staff representative body. Employees were also less frequently involved in companies with more than 500 employees (17%) than in those with 10 to 49 employees (39%). During the first Covid-19 wave more large companies than small ones resorted to preventive health measures (97.7% vs. 91.6%), to short-time working (80.2% vs. 78.1%) and, markedly so when resorting to teleworking (94.2 vs. 50.6%). This survey was conducted among 245,000 private sector companies with more than 10 employees, and received more than 11,000 responses.