Managing time and attendance refers to tracking and managing the hours your employees work and have off for compensation and benefits, which differs from country to country. This blog series shares helpful and important Time & Attendance Quick Tips for different countries.
Are you thinking about hiring an employee in France?
Time & Attendance Quick Tips: France
Before you do, you’ll want to know some important things about the French employment market, so you’re not surprised or caught out of compliance. We asked expert Gita Bhargava, the co-founder and COO at Mihi, the leading global Time & Attendance management software, what you should know about time and attendance regulations in France.
From the beginning it’s important to realize that employer-employee relationships are governed by a complex set of laws and regulations guided by the French Labour Code and Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA). Therefore, employers have only a little room for individual negotiations for Time and Attendance.
Here are 10 quick tips that are helpful to understand your parameters in France:
· Expect that most employees will work 35 hours a week or 48 hours a week (depending upon what is negotiated through the Collective Bargaining Agreement, CBA) and any additional hours will qualify for overtime pay. Managers may work more hours and will then get more holiday days off and audit records must be kept for inspection by the French authorities.
· An interesting loophole: only hours worked at the request of the employee’s superior will be regarded as overtime. This is contingent on the CBA and Work Council.
· The working day may not exceed 10 hours unless you have negotiated up to 12 hours through a Collective Bargaining Agreement.
· Employees at companies with over 50 people have the right to disconnect from all devices to ensure rest time after work, weekends, and holidays.
· Overtime must be paid as follows:
– Additional 25 percent an hour for each of the first eight hours of overtime in a week
– Additional 50 percent for each hour after, but this item is also contingent on the CBA and Work Council.
· All workers have a right to paid leave once they have worked at least one month.
· Workers are entitled to two-and-a half working days’ leave for each month worked, i.e. five weeks of paid leave per year worked.
· Legal documents, handbooks, and regulations must be in French or a French translation must accompany official company communications. The item in the handbook should include and reflect these items which are contingent on the company’s Work Council.
· Maternity leave is 16 weeks per child – 6 weeks before and 10 weeks after birth.
· Paternity leave is 11 consecutive calendar days for a single birth.
There are many laws regulating time and attendance in France. These are some of the most common ones that are helpful to know. It is imperative that not only French employment regulations be considered but also the appropriate CBA and Work Council agreements.
Before you hire in France, have an expert like Gita and her Team at Mihi.com help you to assess how your specific industry and business will be impacted by time and attendance rules and regulations.
