Introduced at the end of August, a decree notably excluded pregnant women in the last trimester of pregnancy, those over 65 without certain pathologies or obese people from the benefit of partial unemployment. The Council of State decided to challenge it on the grounds that it is “not coherent or sufficiently justified by the government”.
- The Council of State has challenged the government decree which limited the partial unemployment scheme to 11 categories of vulnerable people.
- People who were excluded from it since September 1, including pregnant women in the 3rd trimester and obese people, can benefit from it again.
A reprieve for vulnerable people who, since the end of August, had had to return to work. This Thursday, October 15, the judge in chambers of the Council of State suspended the restriction of access to partial unemployment for certain categories of people vulnerable to the Covid-19 epidemic.
On August 29, in fact, a decree reduced the beneficiaries to eleven categories. Since 1er September, pregnant women in the last trimester of pregnancy, obese people, people with a cardiovascular history, unbalanced diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and people over 65 were thus excluded from this exceptional compensation scheme.
The decree no longer concerned persons “the most fragile” according to the criteria established by the High Council for Public Health (HSCP): patients with progressive cancer, immunosuppression, severe chronic renal insufficiency, on dialysis, as well as people over 65 with diabetes associated with obesity or micro or macrovascular complications.
Criteria deemed inconsistent
For the Council of State, the choice to limit the partial unemployment scheme to only some of the vulnerable workers “is not consistent or sufficiently justified by the government”. In the absence of a new government decision, the previous criteria continue to apply, specified the highest administrative court.
A decision welcomed by patient associations and certain health professionals who had filed several appeals before the Council of State since the end of August. Questioned on France Info, the League against obesity considers that it is a “victoire”.
For his part, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran justified Thursday during a press conference the government decree by the desire not to “disintegrate professionally” vulnerable people. But “the Council of State considers that, given the epidemic situation (…), instructs the State to rethink the protection system both in health terms and by avoiding this situation of professional disintegration which could have dramatic consequences long-term”he added, indicating that his ministry would “working with associations to change things quickly”.
