Europe1 .fr with AFP//Photo credits: RICCARDO MILANI / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 12:21 p.m., January 30, 2024
A court decision rules that employees on sick leave do indeed acquire paid leave, under a European directive, but contrary to the French Labor Code which limited the benefit to cases of occupational illness or work accident. work.
The Constitutional Council examines on Tuesday two thorny questions aimed at the acquisition of paid leave by a sick employee, in the wake of a previous decision of the Court of Cassation which had caused employers to jump. In September, it revised the case law by ruling that employees on sick leave do indeed acquire paid leave, under a European directive, but contrary to the French Labor Code which limited the benefit to cases of occupational illness or work accident.
Seized of two priority questions of constitutionality (QPC) formulated by an employee, former commercial employee, the Sages of rue Montpensier must determine whether two articles of the Labor Code infringe on the one hand the right to health and rest and on the other to the principle of equality. The decision of the Constitutional Council, which will not be known at the end of the public hearing on Tuesday, and does not call into question the judgments of the Court of Cassation, could accelerate a change in French legislation.
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An employee on sick leave will now always be able to accumulate paid leave
The new Minister of Labor Catherine Vautrin declared in mid-January that "our country will obviously comply with European legislation" once the decision of the Constitutional Council is known.
Emotion in employer circles
In a note published in November, the publisher specializing in law Lefebvre-Dalloz judges that "even if the nine wise men do not find any unconstitutionality" in the current Labor Code, the intervention of the legislator is "more than desirable". The judgments of the Court of Cassation, which could have retroactive effect, have caused turmoil in employers' circles.
The Confederation of SMEs, after collecting 25,000 signatures in a petition against these judgments, joined the QPC "to defend the conformity of French legislation with the current provisions of the Labor Code". The CPME asks the government "to listen to companies and, at the very least, to limit the applicable retroactivity and to cap the number of days of paid leave acquired in this context".
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Do I have the right to acquire paid leave during my sick leave?
“It’s a disaster since it should cost companies between 2.5 and 3 billion euros per year,” calculated Medef President Patrick Martin. In a letter to members of the employers' organization in December, he said he had obtained assurances from the Ministry of Labor that "the future compliance law" will limit the accumulation of paid leave during periods of sick leave to 4 weeks per year, accompanied by “a right to carry over leave over a period of 15 months”.