Browse through brief employment and labor law updates from around the globe. Contact a Littler attorney for more information or view our global locations.

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Measures against Inflation: Exemptions on Overtime and Purchase of Rest Days

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Guillaume Desmoulin, Partner, and Nicolas Daimez, Knowledge Management Counsel – Fromont Briens | Littler

The law relating to the protection of purchasing power introduces a fixed deduction of employer’s contributions on overtime payment for companies with at least 20 employees and less than 250 employees. Such scheme already exists for companies with less than 20 employees. The new deduction is applicable to all overtime hours worked as of October 1, 2022. A decree must specify the amount of this deduction. Overtime hours worked by part-time employees do not benefit from the scheme.

Published on the same day, the Amending Finance Act for 2022 raises the income tax exemption ceiling for overtime and complementary hours. Remuneration paid as counterpart of overtime and additional hours worked since January 1, 2022, is now tax exempted up to €7,500 per year (previously €5,000). It also provides for a system allowing employees to “purchase” rest days or reduced working hours. Any employee can ask their employer to give up all or part of their rest days acquired from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2025. The amount paid in return is increased and benefits from the same tax and social exemptions as overtime.

Exceptional “Value-sharing” Bonus

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Guillaume Desmoulin, Partner, and Nicolas Daimez, Knowledge Management Counsel – Fromont Briens | Littler

The value-sharing bonus is actually the extension of an existing exceptional bonus created in 2018. It is an optional scheme aiming to encourage employers to pay an additional annual bonus to their employees. The bonus is exempted from social security contributions up to a limit of €3,000. This limit is raised to €6,000 in certain cases, such as the implementation of a profit-sharing scheme.

Employees earning up to three times the minimum wage are also exempted from income tax. The payment of this bonus can be implemented through a company agreement or unilateral decision of the employer. The bonus may be the same for all, modulated or reserved for certain categories of personnel according to criteria of remuneration, classification level, seniority in the company, length of effective presence during the past year or working hours. It may be paid in one or more installments, up to a maximum of once per quarter, during the calendar year.

Early Release of Profit-sharing and Incentive Payments

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Guillaume Desmoulin, Partner, and Nicolas Daimez, Knowledge Management Counsel – Fromont Briens | Littler

Article 5 of Law No. 2022-1158 of August 16, 2022, offers current or former employees the possibility of unblocking on an exceptional basis profit-sharing rights and sums allocated under the incentive scheme. When invested in an employee savings plan, these amounts are normally unavailable for five years. The exceptional release mechanism allows beneficiaries to request the withdrawal, until December 31, 2022, of all or part of the assets blocked in an employee savings plan, with the exception of certain types of plans such as group retirement savings plans (PERCO). Amounts released in this way may be exempt from income tax. However, the income from these sums is subject to social security deductions on investment products.

The amount of money released under this scheme is limited to €10,000 per beneficiary, net of social security contributions. The law provides that the amount released must finance the purchase of one or more goods or the provision of one or more services. The administration specifies that these sums are intended to support household consumption and are therefore not intended to be reinvested in other savings schemes.

Labor Relations within the Platform Sector

New Legislation Enacted

Authors: Guillaume Desmoulin, Partner, and Nicolas Daimez, Knowledge Management Counsel – Fromont Briens | Littler

An order dated April 6, 2022, organized so-called “labor relations” in the mobility platform sector. Collective agreements can now be concluded between workers’ organizations and professional organizations of platforms recognized as representative in their sector, the list of which was published in the Official Journal on September 13. Two decrees of September 21, 2022, specify the conditions of publication of sector agreements on the website of the Employment Platforms Labor Relations Authority (ARPE), as well as the information and communication obligations of the platforms to the workers with the establishment of a digital space.

An approval procedure for agreements making the text mandatory for all platforms is modeled on the extension procedure for traditional collective agreements. In case of dispute on the implementation of the agreement, the ARPE plays a mediation role. The self-employed person can mandate a representative to seize the ARPE and to represent them during the mediation process. Once seized by the representative, the ARPE informs the platform that it has a period of two months to accept to engage in mediation.