COVID-19: April update for French employers

We’ve summarised two recent separate developments which may be of interest to French employers; the recent Decree concerning the modalities of consultation for the works council (CSE) and the Civil Court decision against Amazon that has served up a Health and Safety in the workplace reminder to all employers during the Coronavirus crisis.

The 10 April 2020 Decree

The Decree concerning the modalities of consultation of the CSE (works council) during the period of national health emergency allows:

Possible by telephone conference (or instant messaging but only if video conference and telephone conference are not possible) provided that the device guarantees:

• the identification of CSE members;
• their effective participation by ensuring continuous and simultaneous retransmission of the sound and deliberations (for telephone conference) or by ensuring instant communication of written messages during the deliberations (for instant messaging);
• that CSE Members may always suspend the meeting; and
• when vote with secret ballot: the device must ensure that the identity of the voter cannot be related to their vote, the confidentiality of the transferred data, the security of the voting operations.

Additional requirements/steps for instant messaging consultation:

• Before starting the meeting, checking that the above requirements are met.

• Information given in advance by the Chairman of the CSE:

  • date and time of the beginning of the meeting; and
  • the date and time at which the meeting will end at the earliest;

• The debates shall be closed by a message from the Chairman of the CSE, which may not be delivered before the time limit set for the above-mentioned closing.

• Voting takes place simultaneously during a set timeframe that starts with a message from the Chairman.

• At the end of the voting period the Chairman send the results to all the members of the CSE.

The Decision against Amazon:

On 14 April 2020, a French Civil Court found that Amazon was required to carry out a formal assessment of risk for employees in its warehouses, implement steps to ensure the health (including mental health) of its employees and (pending such assessment and measures) limit its activities to food, hygiene and medical products. In case you continue to have any employees travelling to work in the office in France, this is a is a reminder of the importance of the strict obligation to ensure employees’ health and safety at work.

Based on this decision in summary proceedings, Amazon has been required to:

• Proceed (with the association of employee representatives) with the assessment of professional risks linked to the Covid-19 epidemic for all its warehouses
• Implement any measures necessary to ensure safety and physical and mental health of its employees (including preventive actions, information and training actions, implementation of adapted organisation and means)
• Pending such assessment and related measures and within 24 hours, Amazon must limit its activities in the warehouses to the sole activities of receiving, preparing and sending orders of food, hygiene and medical products, with a penalty payment of €1 million per day and per infringement pending implementation after 24 hours and for a maximum of one month.

For further guidance on managing your workforce and navigating employment issues during this COVID crisis, please see our international feature page.