Working days: what's the difference for paid holidays?
All employees are entitled to 5 weeks' holiday a year, as long as they work full-time all year round (excluding RTT). However, when it comes to taking paid holidays, there are certain variations.
Without going into the details of how days are earned or how holiday entitlement is split, we need to understand how paid holiday is taken under ordinary law in working days and the exceptional system in working days, as set out in the national collective agreements themselves. We explain the rules on paid leave, the difference between working and non-working days, and how paid leave is calculated.
Absence management: which types of leave are concerned?
Types of leave
All types of leave and absence are covered.
- paid leave in both the private and public sectors,
- reduced working hours (RTT),
- public holidays and bridging days,
- sick leave,
- leave related to the arrival of a child:
- maternity leave
- paternity leave,
- paternity leave on birth or adoption (3 days),
- adoption leave,
- full-time parental leave,
- absences to carry out another activity:
- setting up or taking over a business
- teaching or research,
- exercising a local political mandate,
- leave for a sick child,
- leave to care for family members,
- parental presence leave,
- family solidarity leave,
- daily allowances to support a person at the end of life,
- absences due to the disability of a child,
- donated rest days for a seriously ill child,
- specific days off :
- marriage or civil partnership
- death of a family member,
- sabbatical leave.
Paid leave: employees' rights
All employees are entitled to paid leave, regardless of the type or duration of their contract or their length of service.
As a reminder, here is a list of the main information you need to know about paid leave:
- Leave must be approved by the employer.
- Each employee is entitled to 2.5 working days' paid holiday per month actually worked for the same employer, i.e. 30 days (5 weeks) per year.
- The reference period for paid holidays corresponds to the period during which the employee has acquired his rights. Unless there is a company or industry agreement, this period starts on 1 June each year by default.
- The legal minimum number of days' holiday may be reviewed and increased by collective agreement, branch agreement, company agreement or employment contract.
- An employee may take a maximum of 24 consecutive working days' holiday, i.e. 4 weeks, unless an individual exemption is granted.
- It is possible to take leave in instalments. In this case, the period of leave must be greater than or equal to 12 consecutive working days between two weekly rest days.
Ordinary working days
What is a working day? The rule for calculating paid holiday (CP) in France under ordinary law is the working day. Your employee, present in your company all year round on a full-time basis (maternity leave and paternity leave are assimilated to actual working time, which does not mean that he or she is entitled to the same entitlement), is entitled to a working day.This is not the case for parental leave and sick leave (unless otherwise stipulated in an agreement), nor for sabbatical leave or unpaid leave), will be entitled to 30 days' paid holiday. On the other hand, school holidays do not entitle employees to more paid leave.
What are working days? Working days are days that can potentially be "worked", i.e. all days of the week (generally Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays), except for the weekly rest day (generally Sundays).
Is Saturday a working day? Yes, Saturdays and Mondays, for example, are working days, even if your employees don't usually work on those days.
When a week of annual leave is taken, you count the paid holiday from Monday to Saturday of the week in question, i.e. 6 working days. In fact, 5 weeks' holiday in the year equals 6 days' CP, i.e. a total of 30 days per year. If you only count 5 working days in your week (Monday to Friday, for example), then your employee will get 6 weeks' paid holiday. They should be very happy!
When an employee takes paid leave without taking a full week, you need to check that at the end of the period you have your 5 working Saturdays or Mondays deducted, but no more! To illustrate this, let's imagine that an employee twice requests days off at the end of the week for a long weekend. If your company is usually closed on Saturdays, you should not count Saturdays twice. In all, these two periods will make a full week, i.e. 6 days in equivalent from Monday to Saturday.
The difference between the two methods of managing working and non-working days really lies in the subtlety set out above. Common law is designed to ensure that the rules apply to as many companies as possible. That's why it applies to industry as well as banks and shops.
Working days in collective agreements
To find out whether ordinary law applies in your company or whether you are covered by a special scheme, you need to refer to your applicable National Collective Agreement (CCN ) or company agreement. This specifies whether the number of days of holiday earned are working days or days worked. If holiday entitlement is calculated on the basis of working days, your full-time employee working for your company all year round will be entitled to 25 days' paid holiday.
What is a working day? Working days are days that are "worked" in the company: they correspond to the days on which your company is open. Is Saturday a working day? No. Depending on the nature of your business, Saturday or Monday are not working days when your company is closed. As a result, Saturday can be considered a working day in many businesses, as long as they are open on that day of the week. The number of working days in 2016 was 253, while the number of working days for 2017 will be 251.
When an employee who is subject to the CCN applicable to the personnel of technical consultancies, engineering consultancies and consultancy firms - i.e. Syntec - applies for a week's holiday, the calculation is based on working days. If you wish to apply for holiday and take it from Monday to Friday inclusive, this will represent 5 working days of paid holiday.
There are holiday management software packages to help you with this! The Manatime application meets this need by giving you a clear view of your employees' remaining paid holiday entitlement based on the days taken. By setting up management in working or non-working days in advance, all you have to do is keep track of all your employees' holiday entitlements, without the legal hassles you had with your spreadsheet.
Furthermore, the collective agreement applicable to your company may also provide for a higher number of days' holiday than that stipulated by law, as well as bonuses such as the holiday bonus (e.g. the Syntec holiday bonus). It is therefore important to refer to it and to be informed of any updates.
Special case: paid leave and public holidays
A public holiday in a week of paid leave will not be deducted, provided that it is not worked by your company. The same rule applies to the calculation of working and non-working days. That's why May is such a good month to take paid leave to liquidate your remaining entitlements!
In all cases (working or non-working days), you need to ensure that your employee has the equivalent of 30 working days' annual leave at the end of the period. This may be particularly the case when a public holiday falls on a Saturday. If the calculation of paid holiday in working days is more favourable to the employee, case law provides that the employee, whose calculation in working days applies, benefits from an additional day of holiday to compensate.
The pay slip must show the dates on which these rest days are taken, in addition to the remuneration (gross salary, net salary). It will therefore always be possible to carry out this check before the end of the period and adjust if necessary. However, by integrating a holiday management solution like Manatime into your company, you can considerably simplify the management of schedules and balances. You'll be able to concentrate on your core business.
Article translated from French