Obligations, procedures, benefits... Everything you need to know about managing early leave

Contrary to popular belief, managing leave in advance is not necessarily synonymous with disorganisation for an employer.

Regulated by the Labour Law known as El Khomri since 2017, they are mainly known for offering new employees greater flexibility in taking leave following their arrival at the company.

We tell you more! 👇

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Early leave: what is it and how does it work?

The principle of early leave has always more or less existed within companies. But it was the Labour Law enacted in January 2017 that really defined its contours.

Early leave: definition

Early leave is paid leave taken by an employee before the end of the vesting period, generally set at 31 May each year.

In other words, early leave allows a new employee to take paid leave as soon as he or she joins the company, as and when he or she accumulates leave entitlement (2.5 working days per month).

The Labour Law: rules to be observed

The Labour Law - also known as the El Khomri Law - has done much to democratise early leave.

• Prior to its enactment on ¹ January 2017, a new employee in a company could find themselves in the unenviable position of having to wait a long time before taking their first holiday, usually a whole reference year. ⏲️

👉 So, if your contract started on 1 June, you had to wait a whole year before you were entitled to your first days of holiday, as the end of the accrual period was often fixed at 31 May.

Since the implementation of the Labour Law, all employees have been able to take early leave from the first year of their employment. However, they must have a sufficient balance of accumulated leave.

If this is not the case, then they must take what is known as unpaid leave (a period during which you are not paid) 💸.

💡 Good to know: the terms and conditions relating to early leave may vary from one company to another depending on the collective agreements in force.

The rules governing early paid leave are no different from those for a traditional application. In other words, you need to :

• obtain the employer's agreement;

• comply with the deadlines and practices in force in the company (for example, a request made via an internal software application 2 months before the actual holiday is taken).

To avoid any confusion, it is strongly recommended that you keep an up-to-date diary of your requests for and acceptances of paid leave, which provides a written record.

💡 Good to know: the entry into force of the Labour Law also gives employers the right to impose paid leave on their employees in the event of a temporary closure or any other exceptional circumstance.

The employer's obligations

When it comes to paid leave, employers are obliged to comply with certain rules. They must

• notify all employees of the holiday period at least 2 months before the start of the period (from ¹ May to 31 October in most cases, but this can be extended depending on the company's agreements);

• communicate the order in which leave will be taken (priority according to family situation, seniority, etc.) at least 1 month in advance.

It should be noted that the period of leave and the order in which it is taken can be established in one of two ways:

• by the collective agreement or by a company agreement;

• by the employer directly, after consulting the social and economic committee (CSE) if there is no collective agreement or company agreement.

Advantages and disadvantages for the employer

From the employer's point of view, allowing employees to take their leave early has a number of advantages. These include

• making the company more attractive to new employees ;

• smoother management of the holiday schedule (employees can take holiday on a more regular basis, which avoids bottlenecks where everyone wants to take holiday at the same time);

• greater adaptability in the event of compulsory leave.

However, for a company that is ill-equipped or badly organised, the democratisation of early leave can generate difficulties in keeping track of employees' days off.

How can early leave be managed more simply?

As well as communicating the company's position on the subject and regularly reminding employees of their entitlement to early leave, employers need to find a reliable and practical system for managing their employees' holiday schedules.

In this case, it's advisable to opt for specialist software, given the limitations imposed by a simple spreadsheet 💻.

Deploying the right IT solution can bring you a number of benefits:

• saving time for HR teams
• empowerment of employees
• accessibility at any time (employees can apply for early leave when they're not at work, or when they're away on business);
• centralisation of documents and information on a single platform;
• real-time monitoring of each employee's leave;
• elimination of human error in holiday processing;
• access to the history of requests to avoid any conflicts or misunderstandings;
• greater transparency for both employees and employers, etc.

In other words, using leave processing software is a real plus for a company. It helps to streamline the processing of requests and provides greater visibility in monitoring the leave taken by all employees.

⚒️ My Silae, a leave and absence management solution integrated directly into the payroll system, lets you process all types of leave requests from a single platform, automating the entire process. Employees submit their requests directly from the software, managers validate them and all the data is then transmitted to payroll. This saves you time and minimises the risk of error- could you ask for anything better?

FAQ: everything you need to know about early leave

Do you have questions about early leave and would like to know more? The following FAQs are here to help! 👇

Is it possible to take paid leave in the first year?

It is perfectly possible to take paid leave in your first year with the company. In fact, that's the whole point of taking paid leave in advance!

However, you should note that in order to take holiday, you need to have a sufficient balance. For example, if your contract starts on ¹ June, you will have 2.5 working days to take from ¹ July.

If your balance is zero or insufficient, you must apply for unpaid leave.

Can requests for early leave be refused?

Early leave is an employee's right. As such, the employer is entitled to refuse them. However, any such refusal must be justified to the employee concerned. It is essential to specify that the criterion of anticipation is not recognised as a valid reason for refusal.

Criteria that may justify non-acceptance of requests for early leave include a busy period (tourist season, for example), the need to ensure continuity of service or, more simply, compliance with the order of departures ✈️.

Can the employee ask for leave to be carried over from one year to the next?

If the employee is not subject to annualised working hours (the general case), it is possible to carry over leave from one year to the next. However, acceptance is subject to the employer's decision, unless there is an agreement or customary arrangement.

If the employee's request to carry over leave is refused, the leave is not lost. They may be paid for by the employer in accordance with the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement.

For employees with annualised working hours, the situation is somewhat different. In fact, only a change in the length of working time can lead to acceptance of the deferral of paid leave until 31 December, failing 31 October.

It should be noted that this postponement must be provided for in the company's collective bargaining agreement 📖.

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Early leave: key points to remember

To sum up, the democratisation of early leave is helping to satisfy both employees and employers. Based on a more flexible model, companies are able to manage employee absences more fluidly .

But to ensure optimum organisation, the deployment of leave management software remains the essential solution!