Discrimination in hiring: towards the adoption in the Assembly of a text to generalize “testings”

“Many of our fellow citizens who are refused employment or housing decide to change their name, to lie about their age or their address”, underlined in the law committee Tuesday evening the deputy Marc Ferracci (Renaissance), rapporteur of the proposed law, decrying this “symbolic violence”.

The elected representative of French people abroad announced several months ago that he was working on the subject of "testing", this practice aimed at establishing, so that it can be sanctioned, any form of discrimination.

This bill, which the National Rally opposed in committee, will be examined by deputies in public session from December 4.

Composed of three articles, the text provides for the creation of a service, placed under the supervision of the Prime Minister, which would be part of the Interministerial Delegation for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred (Dilcrah), “whose missions would be extended to the fight against discrimination”.

It would be responsible in particular for “helping citizens who request it to carry out individual tests”.

These tests "consist of highlighting discrimination suffered by a real person by sending an application similar to theirs, devoid of the discrimination criterion", specified Marc Ferracci. Admitted by the penal code, they give rise to a right to compensation.

The service would also be "responsible for carrying out statistical tests on companies and public bodies", with the mass sending of similar CVs differing only by one criterion of discrimination.

The publication of their results (+name and shame+ in English, +nammer et covered de shame+ in French) would, according to Mr. Ferracci, “help to change the behavior of the actors”.

In response, if the company does not develop solutions, it would be penalized up to 1% of the total remuneration paid by it, an amount reassessed in commission.

The text also provides for the creation of a “stakeholders committee”, responsible for “developing and validating the testing methodology, as well as the publication of the results”, within which a “representative” of the Defender of Rights would sit. , Claire Hédon.

Heard at the National Assembly on November 9, the latter welcomed the initiatives taken by this text, nevertheless pointing out its limits.

It particularly opposed the handling of these disputes by an institutional body, considering itself to be "the competent authority for the handling of these complaints".