“A pressing need for protection”. The National Assembly will examine this Monday the bill aiming to grant a single status and better social protection to self-employed workers, particularly sensitive to economic hazards, as recently demonstrated by the Covid-19 crisis.
Initially defended by Alain Griset, Minister delegate for SMEs resigning condemned for having failed to declare part of his assets, the file is now managed by his successor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.
According to his statements during committee work, the text constitutes “the cornerstone” of the plan in favor of the three million self-employed workers announced by President Emmanuel Macron on September 16.
This dynamic sector – 840,000 business creations in 2020, or 4% more than in 2019 – has a “pressing need for protection and support” in the face of the risks inherent in independent activity, made worse by the health crisis. , he stressed.
Protection of personal assets
The bill provides first of all for the creation of a single statute for the individual entrepreneur, protector of personal heritage, a long-standing concern of the self-employed.
Individual entrepreneurs would thus be holders of two assets, one professional, the other personal. The latter would be elusive in the event of default, whereas today only the main residence is protected.
Senate modifications aimed at clarifying the legal demarcation of the two heritages and reducing the exemptions were rejected in committee by the deputies in favor of a return to the initial drafting of the project.
This point, the object of concerns on the right and on the left, in particular on the possibility for creditors, in particular banks, to circumvent the protection offered by the new statute, should once more be at the center of the debates.
Better access to unemployment insurance?
To keep the presidential commitment to open unemployment insurance to the self-employed, the project provides for extended conditions for access to the allowance for self-employed workers (ATI). The bill also intends to facilitate business transfer and simplify the financing of vocational training.
This “eagerly awaited” bill according to the co-rapporteur Marie-Christine Verdier-Jouclas (LREM), “breaks with the feeling of the self-employed that their profession was not taken into consideration”. In opposition, the UDI group let it be known that it “welcomed” this text. “By promoting the life of entrepreneurs, we promote growth,” said Valérie Six.
Among the Socialists, Marie-Noëlle Battistel announced amendments aimed at “improving the protection of heritage, strengthening safety nets in the event of a hard blow and facilitating access to training”. The executive aims to implement all the measures this year. For the time being, we still have to wait for the validation of the Assembly, which still has to debate the text on Tuesday 11 December.