Career changes: the preliminary draft of the employers' agreement criticized by the unions

The first aims to maintain the professional transition project (PTP), which is merged with two other systems, the Fipu (professional wear and tear) and the C2P (prevention of exposure to professional risks).

If the employer has given "a favorable agreement to the PTP, the employee retains at the end of his training "the possibility of finding a job similar to the position held, with at least equivalent remuneration" within his original company, according to the employer's text.

Otherwise, "the termination of the employment contract occurring at the end of the training course is considered a resignation" which gives entitlement to unemployment benefits.

The other system, initiated by the employer, is called the "retraining period" and combines the "Collective Transitions" systems, designed to respond to technological or work organization changes, and Pro-A (retraining or promotion through work-study training).

If the retraining aims to reassign the employee within his company, "the employment contract is maintained without modification" during the training, according to the draft agreement.

However, it is suspended in the context of external mobility, as the employee may find himself unemployed due to lack of integration into a new company.

Concerning both the PTP and the retraining period, the employer's text provides for "the effective mobilization" of the rights acquired by the employee on his personal training account (CPF).

"Big Blur"

"We were reminded that the CPF is in the hands of the employee and that it must remain so," responded Michel Beaugas of FO, recalling that his union wanted "a genuine right to retraining for employees," which is absent from the current text.

Yvan Ricordeau, on behalf of the CFDT, criticized the "great vagueness surrounding the consolidation of the schemes," deploring in particular the lack of a response regarding the future of employees on external mobility who cannot find a host company.

The negotiator for the first union fears that the retraining scheme will be used by employers for "cold restructuring without saying so" and without implementing a redundancy plan.

"We have an unclear system that is not reassuring" regarding its ability to "provide real training for employees based on branch or company agreements," lamented CGT negotiator Sandrine Mourey.

"We will do everything we can to put a new document on the table, ideally by the end of the week or Monday at the latest," promised Medef negotiator Hubert Mongon, who assured that the "architecture" of the preliminary draft agreement would be preserved.

The next negotiation session on June 12 should allow the social partners to "appropriate" a "quasi-final" text, he added.

The employers' text was partly inspired by an agreement signed in April 2024 by the minority employers' organization U2P with four unions, but the latter criticized the employers on Monday for having removed the automatic recognition for employees of skills acquired during their training.

This agreement was not approved by the executive, which in April called for a resumption of discussions on reconversions.

The social partners began "flash" negotiations at the end of May in an attempt to reach an agreement by June 16.