Talks over a cross-industry framework agreement on telework - or remote working - in France finally reached a conclusion on Thursday 26 November, after a process sped up by the lockdown and the forced transition to telework for a huge proportion of workers in the country. Social partners, with the exception of the CGT union, agreed on a text that is neither prescriptive nor normative but clarifies the legal framework and supplements a prior agreement from back in 2005. The unions that are signatories to the agreement, having criticised at the beginning of talks employers’ desire for a non-prescriptive agreement, finally came round with space given to social dialogue, the question of covering professional expenses, and the governing of recourse to telework in exceptional circumstances, as well as isolation and the right to disconnect.
The trade unions felt there was an urgent need for action, in order to clarify and modernise the legal framework applicable to telework, with the last cross-industry agreement on telework dating back to 2005. These unions were also anxious to make their voice heard; a recent labour law reform only requires the definition of a company charter and telework during this period of lockdown has in many instances been introduced without clear rules.
Reversibility. This issue was one of the main sticking points for trade unions.
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