Question 32215 — work

Summary

Mrs. Frédérique Dumas draws the attention of the Minister of Labor, Employment and Integration to the way in which the D. group organizes itself in order to avoid paying profit-sharing or participation to its employees. The covid-19 crisis has cast a harsh light on the living and accommodation conditions of residents of a certain number of nursing homes. 10,457 people have died there since the start of the epidemic, according to figures from Government. In France, 7,436 accommodation establishments accommodate just over 605,000 dependent elderly people. These numbers are expected to increase exponentially in the future. The observation regarding the shortage of personnel is alarming. The arduousness of their activity, the lack of real recognition and the low remuneration can only contribute to amplifying this situation. The Government announced mid-January 2020 a global strategy to prevent loss of autonomy for the years 2020-2022, which should concern some 200,000 people. It is in this context that journalist and whistleblower Maxime Renahy carried out a very comprehensive investigation which helped to highlight practices that were extremely harmful to citizens and taxpayers. It turns out that the profitability of the sector (Ehpad and life insurance) is very strong and that hundreds of millions of euros are transferred to tax havens. The leading companies in the old age and dependency market are in fact organized into “nesting dolls”, very often domiciled in Luxembourg, Jersey or other tax havens and the flow of money then becomes untraceable. In this regard, a large group of nursing homes in France, D., transferred to less 105 million euros in Luxembourg between March 2017 and March 2019. Indeed, the majority shareholder is a British fund, which controls the Ehpad chain through a structure domiciled in Jersey, a territory renowned for its financial opacity and its advantageous taxation. Furthermore, D. seems to have put in place a system which would allow him not to pay the participation which would be due to his employees. Madam Deputy therefore wonders how the group would proceed in order to avoid paying profit-sharing or participation despite the significant profits made. At the local level, most establishments are organized as simplified stock companies (SAS) or limited liability companies (SARL). The group would consider each nursing home as an autonomous entity, knowing that the majority of its establishments have fewer than 50 employees. This would allow the group to avoid being recognized as an economic and social unit (UES), which would force it to pay a contribution to its 14,500 French employees. The autonomy of establishments at the local level and the isolation of employees in small structures also make difficult the prospect of joint legal action by workers, who nevertheless have arguments to put forward. Indeed, according to the group's 2017 accounts, the profits made by local entities flow back to headquarters. In addition, it also appears that the group's regional directors are paid by headquarters. It is therefore normal to wonder about the real or artificial nature of the autonomy of these establishments. She asks him to provide answers on all of these points.

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