Ordinance No. 2020-389 of 1 April 2020 provides:

• The immediate suspension of all ongoing electoral processes in companies. All deadlines of the electoral process are also suspended. This suspension will end three months after the end of the state of health emergency.

Where the suspension occurs between the date of the first round and the date of the second round of professional elections, the suspension of the electoral process shall not affect the regularity of the first round.

• Extension of the current terms of office of elected representatives and consequently of the period of protection against dismissal from which they benefit (including employees who are candidates in professional elections).

• The employer is exempted from holding by-elections when the end of the term of office of the members of the staff delegation comes less than six months after the date of the end of the suspension of the electoral process (the period of suspension corresponding to the period between 12 March 2020 and 3 months after the date of cessation of the state of emergency).

• Extending the use of videoconferencing, as a temporary derogation, to hold meetings of the Social and Economic Committees (ESCs) and the Central Social and Economic Committees (CSECs).

The ordinance allows, until the end of the state of health emergency, the organization of all meetings by videoconference, telephone conference or, if it is not possible to use videoconference or telephone conference or when a company agreement provides for it by instant messaging.

The employer must inform the staff representatives before implementing these arrangements for the organisation of meetings.

These specific provisions shall apply to meetings convened during a state of health emergency.

• The CSE shall be informed concomitantly with the implementation by the employer of its decision (i) to impose on its employees the taking of RTT days or assigned days from the time savings account, and/or (ii) to modify working hours or Sunday rest.

The opinion of the CSE must be given within one month of this information

Ordinance No. 2020-386 of 1 April 2020 provides:

• The possible postponement of the medical check-ups that were to be carried out as of March 12, 2020 as part of the individual monitoring of employees’ state of health.
• The possible postponement of health service interventions in or with companies when they are not related to the covid-19 epidemic.
• The occupational physician may prescribe and, if necessary, renew a work stopping in the event of infection or suspected infection with covid-19 or as a preventive measure.
• It may also test for covid-19 according to a protocol defined by order of the ministers responsible for health and labour.

These measures are applicable until a date to be fixed by decree, and until 31 August 2020 at the latest.

Postponed medical examinations are organised by the occupational health services in accordance with the terms and conditions defined by decree of the Conseil d’Etat and no later than 31 December 2020.

Ordinance No. 2020-387 of 1 April 2020 provides:

• The possible extension by amendment of apprenticeship and professionalization contracts, to take into account the suspension of the reception of apprentices and trainees by apprentice training centres and training organizations.

• The postponement of the deadline for vocational training bodies to obtain quality certification from 1 January 2021 to 1 January 2022.

• The possible postponement, at the employer’s initiative, of the performance of the interviews to assess the professional career of each employee until 31 December 2020.

• The financing of experience validation pathways by skills operators and regional inter-professional joint committees, on a flat-rate basis and within the limit of 3,000 euros per file.

• Extension of the deadline for payment of the exceptional buying power bonus from June 30 to August 31, 2020. For companies implementing a profit-sharing agreement, the ceiling is raised to 2,000 euros. In order to more specifically reward employees who worked during the covid-19 epidemic, a new criterion for modulating the amount of the bonus may also be retained by the collective agreement or unilateral decision of the employer implementing this bonus. It will now be possible to take into account the working conditions linked to the epidemic.

• Postponement of the next ballot to measure the trade union audience of employees in companies with fewer than eleven employees, which could thus be held in the first half of 2021.

• Postponement of the date of the next general renewal of the industrial tribunal advisors and the members of the joint regional inter-professional commissions.