Published on Nov 19, 2023 at 3:52 p.m.
As soon as they start working, an employee acquires training rights which they capitalize in their personal training account (CPF) and can “spend” throughout their career. The same possibility should soon be offered to him regarding leave and RTT. The “days” not used could be accumulated over the years in this account or be the subject of a payment of remuneration. This is the whole purpose of the negotiation which opens on the Universal Time Savings Account (CETU).
Via a policy document, which he should send this Monday and of which “les Echos” were able to consult the broad outlines the government calls on the social partners to negotiate to set the specifications.
Election promise
Emmanuel Macron has in fact included the measure, which has been a demand of the CFDT since 2018, in his presidential program in 2022 . Initially ping under the radar, this promise resurfaced in the middle of the pensions conflict, when the President of the Republic proposed building a “life at work pact” that he has detailed in front of only the representatives of the employers the unions having refused his invitation.
Included in the 2023 agenda by Elisabeth Borne this summer , the negotiation on the Universal Time Savings Account is not new territory. At the time of the 35-hour week, at the beginning of the 2000s, the Time Savings Account (CET) was created allowing the employee of a company which has it to save days of leave or RTT. Its function was then extended with the possibility of transforming these rights into remuneration.
Centralized management mode
For the government, there is no question that the CETU, which covers the entire career like the CPF, will cannibalize the time savings accounts that the branches or companies have or would like to create. It will have to come “in addition”.
But, adds the executive, “in the absence of CET, if their employee wishes to contribute to their CETU, [les entreprises ne disposant pas d’un CET en direct ou via leur branche] will have to feed the latter”. Which will not please the employers.
The CETU management method will be the same as for the CPF or the hardship account (C2P), one managed by the Caisse des Dépôts and the other by health insurance : centralized via “a third-party operator in order to facilitate its management and portability in the event of a change of employer”. Note that the government also wants the rights of CETU, CPF and C2P to “be used to contribute to the realization of projects which fall within the scope of each of the systems”.
Increase remuneration
It will be up to the social partners to specify the scope of the employees concerned, particularly in terms of seniority, duration of the employment contract or “taking into account possible sectoral specificities”.
They will also have to negotiate the terms of supply as well as use of the CETU, with on this last point the need to “guarantee” that its possession is not a barrier to hiring. Knowing that the orientation document should impose the possibility, already mentioned by Emmanuel Macron during the presidential campaign, of supplying and using the CETU not only in time but also in money, to increase remuneration. Which will not please the unions.
The government finally warns that it reserves the task of setting the “tax and social regime linked to the rights placed on the CETU” but also the terms of valuation of the sums saved therein. A point on which he should commit to giving “visibility” to employers and unions during negotiations.