The Covid-19 ordinances, adopted to make it easier for companies to overcome the economic crisis following the health crisis, give employers a very wide margin of maneuver on the paid holidays of their employees. Roland Perez, the legal expert from Europe 1, details these measures.

As the summer season approaches, many employees wonder about the future of their paid holidays. Can they take as many days as they want, and when they want? In order to allow companies to better overcome the two months of confinement, which for many have been accompanied by an almost total cessation of activity, and therefore to relaunch quickly, the government has taken a series of measures which considerably widen the scope of action of the employer on his employee's vacation. Europe 1 takes stock:

Leave dates and durations may be imposed by the employer

Exceptional measures have been put in place for this summer, allowing employers to impose on employees the period, duration, or even modify and split the dates of paid holidays, without having to obtain the agreement of the person concerned . The employer can also compel the employee to take them outside of the company's usual holiday period.

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The minimum period before imposing or modifying the employee's leave shortened to 24 hours

Another right, which may prove surprising, is that of not necessarily granting simultaneous leave to spouses working in the same company. The period of one month usually required to impose or modify leave is also no longer required, since it has been shortened to 24 hours. Finally, the maximum number of paid vacation days that can be imposed or modified is six days.

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The need for collective bargaining

All these temporary rights - normally until December 31, 2020 - granted to the employer, taking into account the health crisis triggered by Covid-19 and its economic consequences, are not based on the Labor Code, collective agreements , or even the company agreements in force. The only condition set out in the Covid-19 ordinances to authorize these exceptional rights for employers is that a new company or branch agreement must still be made. Collective bargaining must therefore have been initiated to give this range of rights to the employer.