Allowances to industrial tribunals, dismissal … what changes in the new version of the labor law – Le Monde

Le Monde | 03/14/2016 at 18:26 • Updated 03/14/2016 at 7:13 p.m. | By The Decoders

Manuel Valls presented Monday, March 14 to social partners the new version of the draft law on the reform of the labor law, which should be presented to the Cabinet on 24 March. The Prime Minister assured to have “heard [the] questions about certain provisions” and called for “a new beginning” .

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We list below the main measures mentioned by Manuel Valls in his speech. The full text has not yet been unveiled, which does not allow us to detail each provision.

What changes from the first draft law

• Penalty payment, working hours, part-time: return to the current situation According to the Prime Minister, “the bill does not change the applicable provisions relating to penalties today, hours of work of apprentices, maximum weekly working time of dressing and undressing time, regulation of part-time” . Some of these provisions were criticized as the notice period in case of penalty and counting the rest time or the ability to increase the schedules of an apprentice under 18 years without asking permission of the inspection and occupational medicine.

• the 50% of representative trade unions and the corporate referendum will be implemented gradually. in the current labor law, simply the agreement of unions representing 30% of employees to conclude a business deal. This threshold could be increased to 50% . But this application will first concern that changes to working hours, before being “extended to other sections of the Labour Code” .

• A guaranteed minimum for leave for family events. the first version of the bill allowed company agreements to fix the periods of leave in case of marriage, death of a close (etc.) without specifying the limits. The new version provides that these agreements may not set shorter than the length currently set by the labor code.

• Package days in small and micro businesses: ability to” appoint “a delegate the first version of the draft law allowed companies with fewer than 50 employees of. impose packages days without a collective agreement. The new version now provides the ability to designate an employee ( “entrustment” ), which will act as staff representative and will negotiate with the company, to apply concluded standard agreements at the branch

.

• More rights training for employees ” unskilled “. Manuel Valls assured that employees “low-skilled” (without elaborating) will see their business personal account credited up to forty hours per year (against twenty-four hours for the rest of the workers) and that the ceiling be increased from 150 hours to 400 hours.

• better criteria for redundancy. A section of the Act provided for the extension of the use of redundancies, either in a group but at the only company in the event of “economic difficulties or technological changes “. Manuel Valls promised redrafting intended to prevent large groups can “artificially cause economic difficulties on their French site to justify dismissal.”

• Modulation of working time: the branch agreement shall prevail. Companies will not modulate the working time (for example, increase working hours without compensation because of economic difficulties) beyond a year, except “If this option is available by a sector agreement “.

Points debate that do not change

again, we we support currently on the statements of Manuel Valls, not the full text, which we will examine as soon as we have it in our possession, as we did for the previous version.

See all provided the first version of the reform: what’s in the draft “law work” in detail

• the reversal of the hierarchy of norms. Currently, in most areas, an enterprise agreement must be “best bidder”, that is to say that it can not be less favorable than sectoral agreement or the Labour code. The draft law provides that in many circumstances, the company agreement can free itself of the provisions of the branch agreement or the Labour Code, unless the latter expressly provides a minimum. This appears to have been maintained in the new version except in the case of modulation of working time beyond one year (as explained above).

corporate referendum the new version still includes the possibility of an employee consultation to validate a collective agreement if one or more unions (s) (representing between 30 and 50% of employees) request.

• the provisions on overtime. the Prime Minister did not address the issue of overtime, it can be assumed that the measures under the first draft law does not change. The latter provided that a company agreement or, “failing” branch, could lower overtime pay up to a 10% minimum floor. Moreover, additional hours may be credited (paid or asked recoveries) over a period of up to three years in case of collective agreement (sixteen weeks in the case of “unilateral decision” ).

• the overtaxation of abandoned CSD. A time envisaged by the government, overtaxation of fixed-term contracts (CDD) seems to have been ruled out. The issue was not raised Monday by Manuel Valls, who has merely indicated that “make CDI standard, it is also the question of better supervision of CSD [...] It must of course be concerned that this does not result in an overall increase in labor costs. ” However, the subject referred to by the government to quell the revolt, could return as part of negotiations between unions and employers around the UNEDIC convention.

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