This bill aims to better protect families of seriously ill children in the face of employment, to accelerate access to the AJPP (daily parental presence allowance) and to set up an experiment with the administrations to better support families, particularly with regard to the remaining costs. It was worked on with Eva pour la vie and the Grandir Sans Cancer Federation
The first stage, discussions within the Social Affairs Committee on International Childhood Cancer Day, made it possible to identify a genuine political consensus on the subject with enriching debates and unanimous support from the committee.
They were followed by a debate in the Assembly chamber on Thursday, March 2, with a unanimous vote in favor.
The final step in a few weeks, before the effective application of this law: the Senate. Given the stakes and its consensual aspect, we remain particularly optimistic.
Here is an explanation of this law which does not resolve everything (there will be follow-ups) but all of the articles of which will bring significant progress for the families concerned, in particular those whose child is affected by pediatric cancer, a serious illness or a disability...
Article 1: Protection of employees with regard to the state of health of a dependent child : Prohibition on terminating an employee's employment contract during parental leave, unless the employer can prove serious misconduct on the part of the person concerned or the impossibility of maintaining this contract for a reason unrelated to the state of health of the child.
This article is inspired by the protection of pregnancy and maternity, for any employed parent who is obliged, on medical grounds, to reduce or cease their professional activity. This protection would also apply during the trial period.
Article 2: Strengthening the use of teleworking for employees whose state of health of a dependent child justifies it Alignment of the telework scheme for employees whose dependent child is suffering from a particularly serious illness, disability or accident and for caregivers with that of pregnant women and disabled workers. The idea is to facilitate this measure when it is possible for the employee and if the job in question allows it. And to prevent the employer from refusing without a valid reason.
Article 3: Removal of the condition of explicit agreement from the medical control service for the renewal of the daily parental presence allowance In short, the CAF could advance the payment of the aid, without the opinion of the medical commission (which has 2 months to respond), which will therefore reduce the average delay from 3 months to less than a month for the beneficiary for complete and justified files. This point is a major step forward, the delay in granting aid being often problematic for these young families.
Article 4: Removal of the measure capping the daily parental presence allowance and the daily carer allowance for self-employed workers and job seekers The CAF had the right to limit, for poorly compensated unemployment benefit recipients, the amount of AJPP to the amount of full-time unemployment, for example €1,000. This measure therefore allows the parent to have an AJPP of €1,350 even if they previously received less full-time. Obviously, this measure does not take away anyone's rights, quite the contrary, it simplifies and improves them.
Article 4a (new) Protection of families or family carers who are responsible for a child suffering from an illness, a disability or who has suffered a particularly serious accident, against the risk of termination of the lease by the owner when the latter wishes to take back or sell the accommodation. This article therefore provides a little better protection for tenants at the end of the lease.
Article 5: Experiment with new rules for setting and paying the monthly supplement for expenses within the framework of the daily parental presence allowance Implementation of an experiment conducted by family allowance funds, aimed at improving the support offered to families receiving the daily parental presence allowance (and not only those receiving the supplement for expenses as initially provided for in the proposed law), with the aim in particular of protecting them from financial difficulties and simplifying their access to rights
This is a broad measure, in which representatives of associations and social workers will be stakeholders. We will speak to you again soon about the impact of this article.
Article 6: Financial pledge Purely technical, the State finds the resources to compensate for the cost of this measure (in addition in this case tobacco taxes).
It should be noted that an unexpected amendment was also voted to once again extend the bereavement leave for a child who will therefore benefit from 7 additional days (12 basic days instead of 5 + the 10 days obtained under the Bricout law in 2020).
Video: https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/videos/CRVANR5L16S2023IDV12922027?actions=%5Bobject%20Object%5D&depute=PA642868
