The Igas issued an alarming report on the situation of sick or disabled employees, to fight against “professional disinsertion”.
According to a recent report of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas), between “one to two million employees risk losing their jobs in the short or medium term because of a health problem or a handicap”, or more precisely, 5 to 10% of French employees. This category of people would be “poorly identified” and “called to grow with the aging of the working population,” says the report requested by the ministers of Health and Labor of the former government.
To establish this observation, the Igas based itself on the number of employees officially recognized for their disability (900,000 people) and on that of employees “partially fit or unfit for work” in the private and public sectors. In total, around two million people are believed to be affected. As the report emphasizes, bone and joint diseases as well as mental and behavioral disorders represent 75% of the pathologies at the origin of unfitness notices issued by occupational medicine.
A list of 30 recommendations to the government
To fight against “professional disinsertion”, the Igas has drawn up a list of thirty recommendations, including the strengthening of occupational health services and the maintenance of links between employers and employees during periods of work stoppage. According to experts, “the need for information on the role of the various actors (the company, the occupational physician, social protection organizations, funds for the professional integration of disabled workers, etc.) remains poorly covered” . The report therefore recommends that the government launch a “communication plan on measures to prevent professional de-integration” and integrate into the reform of vocational training, measures concerning employees who are victims of an illness or who are administratively recognized as being with disabilities, in order to facilitate their “access to training”.
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