21 April 2021

René Ricol submitted to the Prime Minister the report he was asked to write in order to find a solution to the tensions between the AGS (Association pour la gestion du régime de Garantie des créances des Salariés) on the one hand, and the administrators and court-appointed agents on the other. At issue was a draft order from the Ministry of Justice that threatened the super-privilege of employees in the event of liquidation, to the benefit of the costs incurred by the court-appointed administrators. This possibility had provoked an outcry from the MEDEF, the CFDT and the FO, since the AGS takes responsibility for paying the employees of companies in difficulty before being reimbursed at the end of the insolvency procedure. Its report recommends:

• Maintaining the current state of the law, i.e. payment of wage claims before court claims after the opening judgment.

• Establishing full transparency of legal and procedural costs, which are rising sharply, i.e. draw up a provisional budget, justify any overruns, and put those involved in these procedures in competition.

• Engaging in a more comprehensive reflection over 18 months to achieve a "controlled modernisation" of the practices of professionals such as lawyers and consultancy firms.

Matignon said today that it would draft its ordinance "on the basis of the report's recommendations" and initiate a reflection "on the proposed medium-term reform paths".

The full report can be found here

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