French employees on non-professional sick leave will soon have the right to acquire paid leave, which will be limited to four weeks over a year, the Council of State ruled this Thursday. This concerns the transposition in France of a European directive.
The government intends to propose an amendment to the bill adapting to European Union law, which must be examined in the National Assembly from Monday. What will change and what do employers and unions think?
How many days of leave can be acquired during sick leave?
In the event of an illness of non-occupational origin, employees may acquire two days per month of paid vacation, within the limit of 24 days per year, or four weeks including Saturdays. Why four? This is the minimum duration of paid leave per year in Europe, compared to five weeks in France.
In the event of occupational illness, employees continue to receive paid leave during their leave at the same rate as currently (five weeks).
Upon returning to work, the employer will have ten days to inform the employee of their rights acquired before and during their sick leave. The employee will then have fifteen months to take them. For employees who have been on sick leave for more than a year, the period for taking leave will not be extended.
What compensation for sick employees in the past?
The acquisition of paid leave during work stoppages for non-occupational illness will apply retroactively. For employees still in employment, retroactivity goes back to December 1, 2009, the date of entry into force of the European Treaty of Lisbon. But the benefit of retroactivity is severely limited by the government amendment: leave newly granted for sick leave cannot exceed 24 working days (Saturdays included) in total.
For employment contracts that ended before the entry into force of the law, the measure can only be retroactive over three years”preceding the termination of the contract” to the maximum. Employees can therefore at best be financially compensated for 12 weeks of paid leave. The same goes for employees who choose to have paid leave paid rather than taking it.
Why are the bosses relieved?
The president of Medef Patrick Martin spoke in the fall of a “huge cause for concern”estimating the impact at “more than two billion euros per year” for the private sector, and therefore potentially six billion if companies had been “required to provision and pay three years of seniority”. Basically, get paid leave “without even working”It is “anything big”the Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CPME) protested.
After the opinion of the Council of State on Thursday, employers’ organizations were relieved. The highest administrative court limited the retroactivity of compensation for employees who left the company to three years, when the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty dates from December 1, 2009. “Our work, carried out in conjunction with the government, has borne fruit”judged in a message on the social network X Patrick Martin.
Why are the unions not satisfied?
The Court of Cassation ruled in favor of the unions on September 13, 2023, deciding that “sick or injured employees will be entitled to paid leave during their period of absence, even if this absence is not linked to a work accident or occupational illness”.
But for the CFDT, by only granting four weeks of leave to employees on leave, compared to five to others, the government is establishing “discrimination between employees”, declared to AFP Isabelle Mercier, national secretary of the first union. She adds that for employees who have left the company, “the limitation (of 12 weeks of untaken compensated leave) which is imposed does not suit us at all”.
For the CGT, the government “made the choice to organize an incomprehensible system that undermines the rights of the most vulnerable employees, very generally in treatment for a long-term illness (cancer, AIDS, depression, etc.)”, according to a press release. For this union, the government project aims to “saving on their backs 800 million euros per year for the benefit of employers”.