Preparing well upstream secures downstream

It's a record! In 2009, some 228.901 disputes be ore labor boards! A igure which, according to the Ministry o Justice, jumped 13.3 in one year. To the chagrin o the directors o human resources, more than 98 o the actions committed by employees. And in 2008, 64.5 o trials ended in their a our. "An industrial action is no longer a raid", summarizes MeGabriel Guéry, lawyer and Pro essor at EM Lyon. Meetings legal 2010, which brought together business and judges, on the initiati e o the school o management and the Uni ersity Lyon-II, it deplored the bulk o the courts but also increasing pressure imposed on employees, which sometimes leads them to turn to the judges: "e erything becomes urgent and immediate, so that they ind themsel es in situations o unreasonable stress."He argued.

The reasons o litigation are plenty. Let's start with the non-reclassement o an employee in a social plan. With situations which sometimes lea e employers poor. And Gabriel Guéry cite the case o a multinational orced to ind a post to an employee that the occupational medicine had deemed un it or the trades o the company. Without ha ing been reclassi ied in the group, he had brought the matter to justice.

Economic context

The crisis has heightened tensions. Eight cases out o ten (74) shi ts to the breach o the contract o employment (a ratio which did not exceed 50 per cent 20 years ago). What scare the lyonnais engineering Akka Technologies Group, which has 5,000 employees. The employment contracts o its consultants, in ol ed mainly in clients, and continue, o course, to collect their salaries between two missions, with a clause o mobility. There ore, the company, which said to regularly ace re usal o missions on the ground that they are too remote rom the home collaborator or inconsistent with his pri ate li e (guard alternating children...), considered se eral redundancies.

"When the economy is prosperous, it may propose other missions." But in times o crisis, order books are less illed, said Murielle André-Hochart, Director o human resources or Akka Technologies. O course, we try to ind tra el the least possible ad erse to our teams. But a ter three re usals, we ind the need to dismiss. "We can't pay our employees to stay home, so the sur i al o the group," she explains. "I ask, at least, to the judges we recognize the absence o bias in redundancies, to assess situations on a case by case and to make the e ort to understand the speci icity o our pro essions." Howe er i a collaborator claims compensation in the courts or un air dismissal, "the justice reply us that we might ind a solution because our range o clients," continues Murielle André-Hochart.

Moral harassment is also responsible or trial. "There is real harassment with a battery o medical data to support." "But there is also the harassment in oked by certain employees as alibis," admits Gabriel Guéry. Always easy leap or justice to decide. "Legal texts on harassment are a great destitution." It is a Nebula. "On the acts, we ha e o ten more di icult to understand what actually happened," pro ides Didier Joly, President o the Chamber o the Court o appeal o Lyon.

Inappropriate communication

Indeed, the same a little "harsh" words be percei ed di erently i it is launched by a team on a project leader or he is bound by a ramework to his assistant. E idenced by the case o the employee o a irm o orthodontic claiming 40,000 euros or " erbal assault".

Railway station, also, e-mails, sometimes clumsily used to make complaints. "At the screen, the tendency is to write as talking." And e-mail can become o real missile to return against their transmitter. "They are more parts in the olders that we ad ocate," warns Gabriel Guéry.

O course, there is no golden rule. But aced with the "judicialization" galloping, better is worth all anticipate. To pre ent the risk o prosecution or moral harassment, Gabriel Guéry urges, or example, employers to systematically de ine be orehand, "the tasks manager waits or the employee in return or remuneration. or those who do not attain the results depend on their ariable part, do not hesitate to sleep on paper the means put at their disposal in terms o training or support. In short, "should take his time and ne er succumb to the precipitation, including redundancies." Preparing well upstream secures downstream. "To be always able to pro ide e idence o good aith", ad ises, abo e all, the man o law.