This "declaration of solidarity", presented Monday in Bercy in the presence of the Minister Delegate for SMEs Olivia Grégoire, is the result of the work of the building and public works crisis committee created in mid-June 2021, recall the Ministry of the Economy. and the Business Ombudsman in a statement.
The crisis committee, chaired by business mediator Pierre Pelouzet, was initially tasked with urgently settling disputes between construction companies rather than resorting to the legal process.
This sector, like others, is suffering from difficulties in the supply of raw materials such as wood and steel, linked to the vigor of the economic recovery post-pandemic of Covid-19, which have inflated prices and created tensions between suppliers and customers.
The good practices listed in this declaration "aim to limit the impact of this exceptional context to preserve activity and employment, with a regular evaluation of their implementation", according to the text drawn up with a dozen organizations, such as the French Association of Construction Products Industries (AIMCC), France Bois Industries Entreprises (FBIE), the French Building Federation (FFB), the National Federation of Public Works (FNTP) or the Federation of Building Materials Distributors Construction (FDMC).
Among these best practices are in particular the commitment to disseminate "accurate, reliable information in real time or short time, on the prospects for the supply of raw materials and materials" and to "justify cost increases" to its customers, to the final consumer.
Other recommended attitudes: avoiding price increases "without reasonable notice", having an "equitable allocation of resources to companies, regardless of their size", "the insertion of a meeting and/or review clause in in the event of unforeseen circumstances", or even allow the extension or suspension of contract execution deadlines without penalties "as soon as supply difficulties make it impossible to respect them".
Participating professionals are now encouraged to deploy these best practices "as close as possible to the actors in the field" and have undertaken to meet "at least every three months" to take stock of the monitoring of their implementation.
For Olivier Salleron, president of the FFB: “The signing of this sector declaration lays the essential foundation stone for the immediate launch of the Assises du BTP, announced a few weeks ago by Bruno Le Maire. They should make it possible to lead to a clear strengthening of the solidarity of the sector at the service of our customers and employment in France, with support from the State. »
CAPEB denounces a result "not up to par" and refuses to sign the declaration
CAPEB salutes the work carried out by the mediation of companies to try to set up an economic solidarity of the sector which is more than necessary in this troubled period both by the pandemic which does not stop and by the war in Ukraine. However, it is clear that the result is not up to CAPEB's expectations.
In particular, no commitment appears in the joint declaration concerning a possible notice period to notify companies in advance of future price increases.
However, this is an essential aspect for construction companies so that they can draw up their estimates in a more serene way and avoid that they bear, on their own, the price increases of materials and equipment by cutting back their margins.
Under these conditions, CAPEB considers that this joint declaration does not meet the initial objective of establishing economic solidarity in the sector.
This is obviously regrettable because how can the level of activity in the building sector be maintained if efforts are not shared?
And all the more so since CAPEB concluded, in April 2022, with some of its partners, a joint declaration in which the signatories (distributors and manufacturers) committed to a notice period of one month.
For Jean-Christophe Repon, President of CAPEB: “We are disappointed even if the mediation of the companies has done a remarkable job in drawing up this joint declaration, on the one hand, and in significantly shortening the publication times of the BT indexes, on the other hand. We regret that, in a difficult moment, the construction sector was unable to show solidarity. Remember that we are in an economic context, where we increasingly fear a significant drop in building activity at the end of the second half of 2022. We therefore hope that we can still make progress on the commitments of the various actors in the sector, on the occasion of the Assises du BTP, the work of which begins today. »