the essential
There are more and more employees of companies in difficulty who have not received their salaries due to the surge in insolvencies. Traveling to Toulouse, Antonin Blanckaert, the general director of AGS, the insurance company which guarantees remuneration, details the situation.
Another flashing light has just come on in the Toulouse economy. Guaranteed salary insurance (AGS) is crumbling under demands from employees whose company is in collective proceedings and unable to pay remuneration. “In the Toulouse region, requests received by the AGS are up 20% compared to 2023 and even + 38% compared to 2022. In Haute-Garonne, in 2024, our insurance system has already supported 5 800 beneficiaries compared to 4,156 in all of 2023” figures Antonin Blanckaert, the general director of the AGS visiting Toulouse. This influx is explained by the deterioration of the national and regional economy with businesses facing increasing difficulties.
Haute-Garonne: 1,000 more companies in liquidation
The first 2024 report suggests a record year for business failures on a national scale. The Toulouse region is not spared and ranks in the critical top 10 in the number of beneficiaries supported in 2024. In Haute-Garonne, 1,000 more companies were affected by judicial liquidation over the first nine months of the year. compared to 2023. One in two bankruptcies leads to a referral to the AGS in order to pay unpaid wages.
87% of beneficiaries in VSEs and SMEs
The AGS is contacted by employees whose company in receivership or liquidation has not been able to pay salaries. This insurance system was created in 1974 and set up an inter-company fund financed by a contribution of 0.25% on the payroll paid by companies. The system mainly benefits employees of small businesses: “68% of AGS beneficiaries are businesses with fewer than five employees and 87% are businesses with fewer than ten employees” according to Xavier Moreau, head of the AGS in Toulouse. (12 employees).
A high plateau for several more months
During the collective procedure, the AGS will seek to recover the salaries it paid on behalf of the defaulting company by registering a “super lien”. This gives it a priority rank to be paid from the company's assets. Recovering the sums is essential for the balance of the AGS which will collect 1.7 billion in 2024 but will disburse 2.1 billion. “We will remain on this high plateau for several more months” warns the general director. Antonin Blanckaert took advantage of his stopover in Toulouse to meet the administrators and legal representatives as well as the commercial court to strengthen ties so that the AGS participates even more in the “economic rebound of companies in difficulty as a social shock absorber” slips the general manager.
