The Tangwall Campagin. The unions stand against the budgetary announcements of François Bayrou, a collective calls for blocking the country on September 10, does the social climate worry you?
Amir Reza-Tofighi. There is no doubt that the start of the school year will be agitated in terms of social movements. I note that the trade union organizations are not on the initiative of the September 10 movement, but that some political parties are joining. I also notice that paradoxically, in our companies, the social climate is pretty good. Social agitation should not be overflowed in SMEs. We must all be aware of the country’s economic situation and the difficult decisions he faces. The observation is clear: France completely wins from its European neighbors by the flight of its debt, by the erosion of its GDP per capita. Growth painfully resists, but will it still hold next year? If the mobilizations of the fall lead to the blocking of the country, and if the necessary budgetary decisions are not taken, we will reduce that the invoice will be paid once again by companies, in particular SMEs, with tax strokes and additional constraints. I wouldn’t say that I am worried but I remain vigilant!
Is there in the budget proposed by the Prime Minister of measures which would be likely to penalize companies excessively?
Beyond the risk of reducing load reduction-which amounts to adding the cost of labor and slowing down wage increases-a measure particularly worries us: the transfer to the company of the care of sick leave until the 7th day. For companies it is the triple pain: the employee is absent, he will be paid by his employer and he will combine paid leave for his sick leave!
To this is added the fact that the company is responsible for the employee’s sick leave since the employer should pay him to the 7thth day. The cost of sick leave is unjustly weigh on the company, avoiding looking at the real problem: abusive disease stops. There is no real and effective control system for sickness stops so well that I have entered into sick leave. I am refused days off, I ask my doctor for sick leave. Even among those under 30 diseases increases while in principle young people should be healthy than their elders. The problem is not the sick are abusive stops. And instead of fighting them, companies are asked to pay. Imposing this expenditure on SMEs is at the same time unfair, untenable, and symptomatic of a state that chooses to discard rather than act.
“Our competitors advance while Europe regulates and retreats”
Summer was marked by an agreement between the president of the European Commission and the American president on a taxation of 15 % of European products imported into the USA. Is this a lesser evil?
Clearly we cannot say that this is a good agreement. Besides, no one says it apart from those who signed it … it refers to the weakness of Europe. But in a context of commercial forces relationship with the United States and China, the European Union must focus on what is in its hand. For several years, Europe has complex, the lives of citizens and businesses, with standards, taxes, regulations, against what other countries in the world do. Our competitors advance, Europe regulates and retreats. Instead of giving companies the ability to respond to the challenges of tomorrow that are ecological transition and demographic transition, Europe puts them balls at the foot, with the consequence of weakening our economy and weakening ourselves in front of our competitors.
Parliament is supposed to rule on the Simplification Law at the start of the school year, promised for months, but still not implemented …
And for a text that does not tell us a revolution either! This simplification law has been sailing in parliamentary waters for two years. It is all the more annoying that at the same time, the administration, daily, continues to knock us out of new standards and constraints. The regulation machine never stops. You have to reverse the logic: set up the SME test, so that each law or standard is tested in an SME to ensure that it is applicable and useful, and that all standards have a limited lifespan, in order to ensure that they have a use for being renewed. Public power must focus on how to simplify the lives of businesses and citizens. This is what we do permanently in our businesses, why could the state not do the same? The exasperation of business leaders who do not feel heard, not understood, is at its height.
What is the state of mind of the 350,000 SME leaders that you represent in the start of the school year?
In the first quarter, the number of failures of small and medium -sized enterprises increased by 30%. And they are often beautiful SMEs. What worries me is the state of discouragement on the one hand important part of the leaders. Entrepreneurs, by definition, are cut to cross difficulties, innovate and find solutions. But today, many feel a form of abandonment of the nation. The country should collectively wonder how to protect companies that generate jobs, weave social ties, and are at the heart of the republican promise of meritocracy. Because if our SMEs disappear, all the social fabric is tearing: more unemployment, more imports of foreign products, less cohesion in the territories.
The risk of government censorship, and therefore a new period of political instability, threatens. Is this the worst scenario for you, entrepreneurs?
I understand the debates and the role of Parliament, they are legitimate. But collective responsibility is not to transform these debates into blocking. Censorship today would be to condemn France to helplessness when our SMEs need visibility and momentum. Political forces can diverge, but they must converge on evidence: without businesses, there is no job, social cohesion, or prosperity. A pro-business budget is not a gift: it is a necessity for our country.
