Labor law update

Acquisition of paid leave during sick leave: the new legal framework

Wednesday 01 May 2024

The Law 2024-364 of April 22, 2024, containing various provisions bringing French law into conformity with European Union law, particularly in the fields of markets, finance and labor law, was passed on April 23, 2023. It stipulates that any period of absence from work due to illness or accident, whether work-related or not and whatever its duration, must give entitlement to paid leave.

Paid leave and sick leave of non-occupational origin: reversal of case law

Wednesday 15 November 2023

In three major decisions on September 13, 2023, the Social Division of the French Supreme Court (“Cour de cassation”) ruled out the application of the French Labor Code's provisions on the acquisition of paid leave during non-work-related sick leave, in favor of European law. Due to these rulings, any absence from work due to illness or accident, whether work-related or not and for any length of time, must give rise to paid leave. A strict interpretation of the decisions should lead employers to recalculate the paid leave entitlements of their employees on sick leave, both for the current vesting period and for previous periods. In any case, in the absence of legislative intervention, these rulings are a source of considerable legal uncertainty for employers.

Unjustified absence: presumption of resignation

Wednesday 31 May 2023

Under the law, an unjustified absence can be defined as the fact for an employee to voluntarily stop coming to work, without a valid reason. Prior to a recent change in the law, this practice allowed employees to avoid resigning, and therefore, receiving no unemployment benefits, while waiting to be dismissed for misconduct. According to recent data, in the first half of 2022, 70% of dismissals for serious misconduct were motivated by unjustified absence, i.e. more than 123,000 private sector employees.

PURCHASING POWER LAWS

Monday 10 October 2022

The new legal package relating to purchasing power consists of a series of measures stemming from two laws of August 16, 2022 aimed at protecting purchasing power in an inflationary context. The main interest of these measures, is to enable companies to pay additional remuneration to employees or to enable the latter to build up savings via sums that are exempted from social security contributions.