
Covid-19 and the emergency measures regarding employee representative bodies within companies (2/3): Remote meetings of the Comité social et économique
In order not to hinder the operation of the Comité social et économique (CSE), the Ordonnance n°2020-389 of 1 April 2020 and the Decree n°2020-419 of 10 April 2020 set the procedure of remote meetings of the CSE called during the period of the public health state of emergency, which runs from 24 March to 11 July 2020 included.
Further to the information by the employer to its members, every meeting of the CSE can proceed through:
–videoconference: The Ordonnance does not set any limitation to the number of meetings through videoconference by way of derogation to the maximum of three meetings set by Articles L. 2315-4 and L. 2316-16 of the French Labour Code.
–conference call: The chairman of the CSE must inform its members of the meeting through conference call according to the rules applying to the convocation of CSE meetings.
–instant messaging: This type of meeting is only authorised if it is impossible to organise videoconference or conference call, or when provided by a company agreement. The chairman of the CSE must inform its members of the meeting by instant messaging. He must set the date and the hour of its start as well as the date and the hour of its earliest expected end according to the rules applicable to the convocation of CSE meetings.
The procedure of these remote meetings follows the rules on videoconferences (Articles D. 2315-1 and D. 2315-2 of the French Labour Code):
– The technology implemented must allow the identification of the members and their effective participation, allowing the simultaneous and continuous broadcast of the written messages/sounds/images of the deliberations (depending on the type of remote meeting implemented). The suspension of the meeting must be possible.
– The meeting proceeds according to the following steps:
1°Prior to deliberating, the access to technological instruments complying with the conditions set above must be ascertained for each member.
2° The voting must happen simultaneously: the attendees must have the same time period to vote starting from the opening of the voting operations set by the chairman of the CSE. If the meeting proceeds through instant messaging, the chairman of the CSE communicates the results of the vote to each member at the end of the time period set for voting.
3° If the meeting proceeds through instant messaging, the discussions are ended by a message of the chairman of the CSE, which may not be sent before the hour set for the end of the deliberation.
– If there is a secret ballot, the voting device must ensure that the identity of the voter may not be linked to the expression of his vote. The process must ensure the confidentiality of the transmitted data and the safety of the mailing of the means of identification, the attendance record, the registration of votes and the counting of votes.