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Night work in the Syntec agreement

Is your company subject to the provisions of the Syntec agreement and do you want your employees to work nights?

Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of this special working arrangement, in compliance with legal and collective bargaining provisions.

What is a night worker?

Under the French Labor Code, any work performed over a period of at least nine consecutive hours, including the period between midnight and 5 a.m., is considered night work.

The night shift begins at 9 p.m. at the earliest and ends at 7 a.m. at the latest.

To qualify as a night worker under the legal provisions, the worker concerned must :

  • At least twice a week, according to his usual work schedule, at least three hours of night work per day;
  • Or complete a minimum number of hours of night work during a reference period.

⚠ Please note: the French Labor Code stipulates that night work remains an exceptional working arrangement.

To be able to use it, two cumulative conditions must be met:

  • Night work must be justified by the need to ensure the continuity of economic activity or socially useful services;
  • Imperatives to protect the health and safety of workers must be taken into account.

⚠ Please note: if night work, even on an occasional basis, is incompatible with the employee’s family obligations, the employee may refuse to work in this way, without this refusal constituting misconduct or grounds for dismissal.

How does the Syntec agreement cover night work?

The Syntec collective bargaining agreement contains special provisions for ETAM employees who work regular night shifts.

These employees are entitled to a 25% increase on the hourly rate resulting from the hierarchical minimum wage, provided that these hours are included in a work period of at least 6 consecutive hours.

Employees who are not ETAMs will benefit from the legal provisions that provide a minimum of time off for employees working night shifts.

There are no special legal or contractual provisions for employees who work occasional night shifts, but it is advisable to give them at least some time off in return.

  • Important: in order to introduce night work in your company, you will need to sign a company-wide agreement, or seek approval from the labor inspectorate.

In fact, night work can only be introduced in companies by means of an extended branch agreement or company or establishment agreement.

Apart from the elements mentioned above, the Syntec Convention has no extended branch agreement governing night work.

If you want your employees to work at night, you’ll need to adopt a company-wide agreement governing the practice of night work in your company or establishment.

In the absence of such an agreement, authorization must be sought from the labor inspectorate.

This request must be justified and accompanied by a document attesting to the prior information given to employees.

The labor inspector will announce his decision within 30 days of receipt of the request.

What are the maximum working hours for night workers?

The French Labor Code stipulates that a night worker’s daily working time may not exceed eight hours, and weekly working time may not exceed forty hours over twelve consecutive weeks.

Under certain conditions, a company agreement or authorization from the labor inspectorate allows these maximum working hours to be exceeded.

Important: night-shift workers must also undergo special monitoring by the occupational health department because of the special working conditions.

Night work is a special issue in labor law, and its implementation must be carefully monitored.

DESRUMAUX AVOCATS is at your disposal if you would like to set up this system in your company.

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10 sacred weeks: protecting young dads at work

The law offers special protection to employees during a crucial period in their lives: the 10 weeks following the birth of their child. Breaking the contract during this period is strictly regulated.

🔑 A key point to remember: except in cases of serious misconduct or for reasons totally unrelated to the birth of the child, dismissal is prohibited.

Any dismissal of an employee in breach of these rules will be considered null and void, and may give rise to the payment of damages to the employee amounting to 6 months’ salary.

For the first time, in September 2023, the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) highlighted this protection.

In this situation, a sales manager, dismissed two weeks after the birth of his child, had his dismissal annulled because the reasons put forward by his employer were not sufficiently solid during this protected period.

Young fathers therefore enjoy the same protection against dismissal as young mothers within 10 weeks of the birth of the child, and dismissal of the latter must be justified by the impossibility of keeping him in his job.

The case law applicable to pregnant women can therefore be applied in a similar way to young fathers.

💡 Good to know: whether for a father or a mother, these 10 weeks post-birth are sacrosanct. If there are grounds for concern, it is imperative to wait until the end of this period before taking any action.

The employee is therefore protected during this period.

Thus, economic reasons for dismissal, the end of a project, physical unfitness and the impossibility of redeployment, as well as professional incompetence, will not constitute grounds for dismissal during this period. This impossibility of retaining the employee in his post must therefore be based on circumstances totally independent of the employee.

However, it would have been perfectly possible to dismiss him on the same grounds at the end of this period.

We recommend that you be particularly vigilant with your employees who are young parents, and more generally in all situations linked to maternity, paternity or any situation that could open the door to accusations of discrimination.

When faced with such delicate situations, expert advice is essential. Naturally, DESRUMAUX AVOCATS is at your disposal to help you manage these complex cases.

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Practical information: individual redundancies

If your company is experiencing economic difficulties and you wish to let one of your employees go, we’ll show you how to proceed.

Please note: for a redundancy to be justified, your company will have to justify the economic difficulties listed in the French Labor Code. Not all economic difficulties are grounds for dismissal for economic reasons.

Step1: determining the order of redundancies according to legal or contractual criteria.

Please note: this is a mandatory step. If it is not complied with, you may be fined and ordered to pay damages to the dismissed employee.

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Stage 2: the duty to adapt and reclassify

Prior to any redundancies, the employer must implement all measures to avoid layoffs.

We therefore need to adapt employees to their jobs as much as possible, to enable them to be redeployed to other positions.

Initially, the employee should be offered positions in the same category. If no such position is available, the search should be extended to other jobs, including those that the employee could do after training to adapt to the job. This training must be of short duration.

This obligation applies to all companies, regardless of their size, and to all redundancies, regardless of the number of employees made redundant.

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Step 3: Consultation of the CSE, mandatory only if the dismissal is due to a reorganization of the company or concerns an employee representative.

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Step 4: Invitation to a preliminary interview

The letter convening the employee to a preliminary interview must be sent to the employee by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, or by hand-delivered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. It must contain the obligatory information required for this type of letter.

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Step 5: The preliminary interview

The preliminary interview may not take place less than 5 working days after presentation of the letter convening the preliminary interview.

During this interview, the employee should be informed of the reasons for the decision, and given the documents relating to the contrat de sécurisation professionnel. The employee should also be reminded of the possibility of contacting services, in particular the public employment service, which can help him or her make a decision in full knowledge of his or her rights.

Reminder: the employee has 21 calendar days in which to accept or reject the contrat de sécurisation professionnel.

This cooling-off period begins the day after the employer hands over the CSP information document.

This period must be respected in its entirety, even if the employee accepts or refuses the proposal during this period.

The dismissal cannot take effect before the end of this cooling-off period.

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Step 6: Notification of redundancy for economic reasons

The letter of notification of redundancy for economic reasons may be sent to the employee before the end of the cooling-off period.

It should then remind the employee of the date on which the cooling-off period expires, and explain that if he refuses, this letter will serve notice of his dismissal.

Please note: the letter of dismissal can only be sent to the employee after a period of 7 working days for non-managerial staff and 15 working days for managerial staff following the date of the preliminary interview.

This letter must include, among other compulsory details, a statement that the employee has priority of re-employment for a period of one year from the date of termination of the employment contract, and the conditions for implementing this priority.

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Step 7: Notification of dismissal to the authorities

The DREETS must be informed of the redundancy within 8 days of the redundancy letter being sent to the employee. This information must be sent by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

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Step 8: Notice of termination

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The employee may be exempted from the notice period, which may also be waived if he or she has accepted a contrat de sécurisation professionnelle.

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Final stage: termination of the employment contract

The employee receives compensation for the termination of his or her employment contract.

You’ll also need to hand over your end-of-contract documents.

The redundancy procedure is a delicate one to implement, involving a number of important formalities that can call into question the validity of the procedure.

DESRUMAUX AVOCATS is at your disposal to help you set up such a procedure.

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News: New rules for very small businesses’ professional elections

The CERFA model for the procès-verbal de carence has just been modified, and this change will be of great interest to companies with between 11 and 20 employees.

Previous regulations

Until now, in these companies, it was sufficient to inform staff of the organization of professional elections.

If no employee put himself forward as a candidate within 30 days, the VSE could draw up a “procès-verbal de carence” (minutes of default) attesting to the absence of elections.

The CERFA model did indeed include a specific box for companies with fewer than 20 employees, stating that “in accordance with the provisions of article L.2314-5 paragraph 5 of the Labor Code, no election has been organized”.

New regulations

Following a ruling by the French Constitutional Council, the Ministry of Labor has revised its interpretation of the relevant legal provisions.

From now on, very small companies (TPE) are exempted from negotiating the pre-electoral protocol with the trade unions; in other words, they can draw up this agreement internally without going through external negotiations.

However, these companies are still required to organize professional elections.

If, at the end of the two rounds of voting, there is neither an elected representative nor a candidate, the company may draw up a “procès-verbal de carence”.

Please note any employee may stand for re-election within 6 months of the end of the last election. In other words, the PV de carence is only valid for 6 months.

The new regulations seem rather onerous for a company. We’ll be sure to let you know if the situation changes.

Naturally, DESRUMAUX AVOCATS will be happy to help you organize this important event for your company.

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SYNTEC Agreement: On the terms and conditions of working time arrangements under the SYNTEC Agreement

The Syntec collective bargaining agreement provides for a number of working time arrangements, including JRTTs, to meet the needs of the various activities it covers.

It is appropriate to present all the terms and conditions envisaged by this agreement, before analyzing the additional options that may be available to the companies concerned.

What is RTT?

  • RTT = reduced working hours
  • To qualify, they must be provided for in a collective agreement.
  • They are used to compensate for the fact that collective working hours are exceeded, in the form of rest days.
  • In this way, RTTs are granted to employees whose employment contract provides for hours in excess of 35 hours.

The scheme, introduced in the early 2000s, was subsequently abolished by the law of August 20, 2008. RTTs survive in two ways:

  • Through collective agreements signed before 2008.
  • In compensation schemes for exceeding collective working hours introduced after 2008 and still referred to as “RTT” or “JRTT” in the SYNTEC agreement.

What are the terms of the SYNTEC agreement?

The SYNTEC agreement envisages three ways of organizing working hours.

  • The standard Syntec agreement

This arrangement applies to ETAM employees and certain managerial staff. It corresponds to a standard 35-hour working week.

Under this arrangement, it is possible to replace all or part of the overtime payment by an equivalent rest period. To do this, a company-wide agreement must be adopted, or, in the absence of trade unions, after consultation of the CSE and agreement of the employees concerned.

This method does not therefore offer any considerable leeway for the companies concerned.

In other words, either they can negotiate a company agreement to replace the payment of all or part of overtime, or they can’t, and the only option open to these companies will therefore be to place their employees on the 35-hour working week and pay all the overtime worked, which unfortunately doesn’t correspond to the economic reality of many small companies subject to the Syntec agreement.

  • The “carrying out assignments” modality

Option no. 2 in the Syntec collective bargaining agreement corresponds to a fixed number of hours per week, with an annual ceiling in days.

The employees concerned may only be engineers and managers whose annual remuneration is at least equal to the annual Social Security ceiling, which in 2023 corresponds to the sum of €43,992.

These employees are less autonomous than executives eligible for a fixed-day agreement, but they do have special assignments that prevent them from following a strictly defined timetable.

Under this arrangement, employees can work up to 38.30 hours a week, with a maximum of 219 working days a year.

The 3.5 hours of overtime are intended to be compensated by half-days of under-activity (recovery of these days in the form of compensatory rest, etc.).

Please note: in order to apply this system, the remuneration of employees concerned by this system must include variations in working hours up to a limit of 10%, but must not be less than 115% of the agreed minimum annual salary.

In other words, employees working under this arrangement must receive an annual remuneration corresponding to 115% of the agreed minimum wage, or an annual remuneration at least equal to the annual Social Security ceiling.

Here again, such arrangements are in no way suited to SMEs and VSEs subject to the Syntec Agreement.

Such companies can’t afford to meet the financial conditions imposed by the industry-wide agreement to set up this system.

Nor do these companies necessarily have the option of derogating from this arrangement by adopting a more suitable working time arrangement through a company agreement(see below).

Clearly, these companies are condemned to either work 35 hours and pay overtime, or not work overtime and reduce their productivity.

  • Daily rate

The Syntec Agreement offers companies the option of a fixed-days contract (modalité n°3).

The employees concerned may only work a maximum of 218 days per year per calendar year, including the solidarity day, for an employee who is present for a full year and has acquired all his or her paid leave entitlements, not taking into account conventional seniority leave (and any other leave provided for by company agreement or usage) and exceptional leave for family events provided for in the Syntec agreement.

Please note: within the Syntec agreement, only employees classified as 3.1 cannot be placed on a fixed-day contract.

A rider to the Agreement has slightly relaxed this condition and will soon enable engineers and managers classified in position 2.3 to be placed on a fixed-day contract.

However, if you want to place an employee on a fixed day rate, you will need to pay them 120% of the agreed minimum wage for employees in position 3.1, and 122% of the agreed minimum wage for employees in position 2.3.

This represents a gross monthly salary of €3,905.22 for an employee in position 2.3 and €4,292.40 for employees in position 3.1.

As a reminder, the changeover to a fixed-term working week also requires compliance with a number of legal and contractual conditions in order to be valid and avoid the risk of the fixed-term agreement becoming null and void.

Once again, this system is not adapted to the reality of many companies covered by the Syntec agreement.

How can I opt out of the Syntec agreement?

In reality, it appears that these procedures are not suited to most small and medium-sized companies covered by the SYNTEC agreement.

In fact, it presupposes overly drastic conditions that do not correspond to the economic reality of these companies.

Clearly, these companies can’t afford to comply with the terms and conditions proposed by the Syntec Agreement, because they can’t afford to pay their fixed-hour employees a minimum of €43,992 a year, or to apply the various supplements provided for by the branch agreement in these different terms and conditions.

For these companies, it is therefore necessary to derogate from the branch agreement.

This derogation can be achieved through the adoption of various company agreements:

Adopting a company agreement on the organization of working hours

The organization of working hours within companies can be achieved by means of agreements aimed at setting up an organization of working hours over a period longer than a week and at most equal to a year (or even three years, if authorized by a branch agreement or collective bargaining agreement).

This type of agreement makes it possible to adapt employees’ work patterns throughout the year, depending on the company’s activity, and thus avoid overtime during peak periods.

Clearly, a reference period is set, with a limit, above which overtime will be paid to employees.

For example, the limit for one year is set at 1607 hours: if at the end of the year one or more employees have exceeded this limit, they will have to be compensated for the overtime hours worked during the year.

It is also possible to set a weekly limit, e.g. 39 hours, beyond which hours worked during the same week are in any case considered as overtime, and paid with the salary for the month in question.

This arrangement can be put in place through a company agreement, or through a unilateral commitment by the employer.

In companies without employee representatives, adoption of the company-wide agreement will require a company-wide referendum and approval of the project by a 2/3 majority of the workforce.

Please note: if you decide to implement this type of agreement through a unilateral commitment, it can only be organized in work periods, equal to 9 weeks in companies with fewer than 50 employees, and four weeks for companies with 50 or more employees.

A company-wide agreement on the organization of working hours can therefore be an appropriate solution for small and medium-sized businesses wishing to derogate from the provisions of the Syntec Agreement and organize their own working hours.

However, the adoption of such an agreement presupposes either negotiation with employee representatives, or the introduction of a company-wide referendum in companies without such representatives. In the latter case, it will be necessary to obtain the approval of 2/3 of employees.

The introduction of such an arrangement by means of a unilateral commitment is less attractive because of the short period during which the agreement can be put in place.

Setting up an agreement overriding collective bargaining provisions relating to fixed-rate working days

Syntec lays down very strict conditions for setting up a fixed-rate working day agreement with a company’s employees.

Once again, these conditions may prevent smaller companies from implementing this type of agreement, even though they are sometimes more favorable to employees and better suited to the company.

Since September 2017, company agreements have enjoyed real primacy over branch agreements in this area.

It is therefore perfectly possible for your company to conclude an agreement extending the scope of fixed-price agreements.

This agreement may enable you to open up access to fixed-price agreements to employees who are not in position 3.1 or 2.3.

On the other hand, it will not be possible to extend this possibility to employees who are not managers or engineers, as the latter do not have sufficient autonomy to access this type of agreement. This would run the risk of rendering null and void any lump-sum agreements concluded on the basis of such an agreement.

It is also possible to provide for lower remuneration than that stipulated in the Syntec Agreement.

In fact, the only imperative that cannot be derogated from, even by company agreement, are the collective bargaining minimums defined by regularly revised scales.

On the other hand, the arrangements implemented within Syntec, under which an employee in position 3.1 can only be placed under a fixed-term workweek agreement if he or she receives 120% of the agreed minimum, do not constitute an imperative arrangement.

It is perfectly possible to derogate from this rule by means of a company agreement, and to provide for a lesser or different form of compensation.

Once again, this will require the adoption of a company-wide agreement, in line with the above-mentioned conditions.

Why derogate from the Syntec Agreement’s provisions on the organization of working hours?

It would appear that the Syntec collective bargaining agreement’s provisions on the organization of working hours are not adapted to the economic reality of small and medium-sized companies subject to this agreement.

It is therefore necessary for these companies to use company-level negotiations to derogate from branch provisions, within the limits set by law.

These derogations will enable these companies to adapt their working hours to their real needs, and thus support their growth and productivity.

Please note: there is no question of allowing companies to derogate from the branch in their sole interest, without taking into account the interests of employees.

The aim is to enable these companies to adapt working hours to their needs, while taking into account employees’ working conditions and envisaging compensation packages for employees that are simply better adapted to the economic reality of these companies.

Negotiations at company level would thus enable small and medium-sized businesses to set up working time arrangements that are fully adapted to their needs, with compensation packages for their employees that are also adapted to their economic health.

In fact, it seems important for the SYNTEC Convention to reform in this area.

Firstly, because the temptation to derogate from the rules it has implemented in this area is great for these companies, which find these provisions totally unsuitable and out of touch with their reality.

As a result, the effectiveness of the agreement is less important, which is a real problem since the original aim of such an agreement is to federate as many companies as possible within the same branch and with the same working conditions, thus providing unrivalled legal certainty for employees.

Secondly, because most small and medium-sized companies wishing to derogate from these provisions, which hinder their economic development, cannot in practice negotiate within their companies.

In the absence of employee representatives, it is difficult to set up a company referendum and negotiate directly with employees.

Not only is such an arrangement particularly time-consuming in these companies, where management is generally multi-tasking, but it is also particularly tricky, in practice, to explain to employees the reasons for these negotiations, to make them understand the benefits for the company and the quid pro quos that each party must agree to negotiate in order to conclude this agreement.

In the final analysis, it is difficult to negotiate with employees who are not accustomed to this exercise, which requires real experience, which employee representatives generally have. This is because it is necessary to be able to take into account the needs of the agreement for the company, and not just the modification of their own working conditions, which can be tricky for employees who would refuse any major modification to their working conditions, even if this were absolutely necessary to enable the company to evolve, and even if the proposals made to these employees appeared, objectively, to be perfectly acceptable.

We therefore feel that Syntec needs to carry out a major overhaul of this part of the agreement, in order to make it better adapted to the reality of all companies, and ultimately to reinforce the effectiveness of this agreement at national level, which would have the advantage of enabling all companies to benefit from the same base in this area, also ensuring that employees enjoy uniform working conditions throughout the industry.

In the absence of any reform, it seems clear that many of the companies that have not yet done so will derogate from these drastic conditions through company negotiation.

Naturally, DESRUMAUX AVOCATS will be happy to provide you with information on any changes to the Syntec regulations in this area, or to help you negotiate and adopt a company-wide agreement.

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Contractual length of trial period: the French Labor Code sets the upper limit

As a reminder, the French Labor Code sets the length of the trial period for employees on open-ended employment contracts according to their qualifications:

Employee qualification Length of trial period Maximum duration including renewal
Workers and employees 2 months 4 months
Supervisors and technicians 3 months 6 months
Managers 4 months 8 months

Please note: renewal of the trial period is not automatic, and cannot be provided for from the outset of the contractual relationship.

Your employee will need to sign an amendment to renew the trial period.

Some collective bargaining agreements provided for longer trial periods, while others were shorter. For example, the Syntec agreement, before it was amended, used to provide for shorter trial periods than those stipulated by law.

Some agreements provided for longer periods than those stipulated by law, and these provisions were maintained until then.

The transposition of a European directive puts an end to this possibility.

As a result, from September 9, 2023, no longer than the legal maximum duration will apply.

The French Labor Code therefore sets the maximum length of the trial period.

All your employees will therefore have to comply with the legal requirements set out above, and their probationary period may not last any longer.

On the other hand, collective agreements providing for shorter working hours remain in force, provided they were signed after June 26, 2008, the date on which the relevant legal provisions came into force.

Agreements with shorter terms concluded before this date are no longer in effect.

The provisions of the Syntec agreement were rejected by the Cour de cassation in 2016, before being amended to include the same duration as the law.

You should now refer to the legal provisions to find out the maximum duration authorized for the trial period of your employees, depending on their qualifications.

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Syntec Agreement: managing employee sick leave

The Syntec Agreement contains special provisions for employees absent due to illness or accident.

In particular, these provisions stipulate the compensation to be paid to the employee during this stoppage, as well as its duration.

In this article, we take a look at the key points to be aware of when one of your employees is absent due to illness or accident.

What are the effects of sick leave on the employment contract?

All absent employees must justify their absence.

Thus, if the absence is the result of a work-related accident or illness, whether work-related or not, the absence must be confirmed by a medical certificate, which must be sent to you as soon as possible by the employee, and within a maximum of 48 hours.

Once this absence is justified, it suspends the employment contract, not terminates it.

Please note: employees on sick leave benefit from special protection against dismissal.

We recommend that you include a clause in your employees’ employment contracts specifying the deadline by which they must inform you of the reason for their absence.

This clarification can also be included in the company’s internal regulations.

How are employees compensated?

There are two distinct situations:

Incapacity following an accident at work or occupational disease

The right to payment of the allowance is acquired from the first day of presence in the company, with no seniority conditions.

Incapacity following a non-occupational accident or illness

Entitlement to the allowance is acquired after one year’s service, in accordance with legal provisions.

Important : There is no waiting period under the Syntec Agreement. This means that an absent employee who meets the conditions for entitlement to the relevant allowance will receive it from the first day of absence, duly certified by a medical certificate.

Under the SYNTEC agreement, sick pay paid by the employer to supplement Social Security benefits is guaranteed for all absences due to illness or accident, whether work-related or not, for a maximum of 90 consecutive or non-consecutive days over a period of 12 consecutive months.

Beyond this 90-day period, the employer’s health insurance scheme will continue to provide cover.

Secondly, the method for calculating the amount of sick pay will vary according to the employee’s classification and length of service:

Employee classification Seniority Salary retention
ETAM From 1 to 5 years 1 month at 100% + 2 months at 80% salary
5 years or more 2 months at 100% + 1 month at 80% discount
Engineers and managers 1 year or more 3 months at 100%

⚠ Warning: If the employee reaches the seniority referred to above during his illness, he receives, from the moment this seniority is reached, the allowance or fraction of allowance fixed according to this seniority for the remaining days of illness.

Important: The Syntec Agreement stipulates that periods of absence due to illness or accident are included in the calculation of paid leave when the employer maintains the employee’s salary.

Following a new ruling by the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation), any absence of an employee on sick leave will have to be taken into account in its entirety for the calculation of the paid leave from which the absent employee may benefit, including, for Syntec companies, for periods of illness which would not give rise to continued payment of salary.

DESRUMAUX AVOCATS is naturally at your disposal to discuss the terms and conditions of the Syntec agreement on sick leave, and more generally all the provisions of this agreement.

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SYNTEC employment contracts: all you need to know about the intellectual property clause

Navigating the complexities of intellectual property

Navigating the complexities of intellectual property is essential for any company. The Syntec Convention offers specific insights in this area.

Intellectual property provisions

The Syntec agreement includes specific provisions on intellectual property, which you should be aware of to find out what rights your employees have with regard to inventions.

While, in accordance with the provisions of the French Intellectual Property Code, inventions made by employees during the performance of their employment contract belong to the employer, contractual provisions determine the additional remuneration that may or must be paid to the employees concerned.

Impact on employee rights

Wondering how it affects your employees’ rights to their inventions? Let’s decipher the highlights of this agreement together.

Patentable inventions: Employee rights and remuneration

If your employee makes a patentable invention during the performance of his or her employment contract, this invention belongs to your company.

The employee may receive a lump-sum bonus.

Furthermore, if the invention leads to commercial exploitation within five years of the patent or utility certificate being granted, the employee will receive additional remuneration.

This additional remuneration can take several forms:

  • A lump-sum payment made in one or more instalments;
  • A percentage of salary ;
  • A share in the proceeds from the sale of patents or operating licenses.

Please note: The Syntec Convention stipulates that this additional remuneration must be paid to the employee inventor even if he or she has left the company or retired.

The size of this additional remuneration will have to take into account a number of factors:

Subjective elements related to the employee in the context of this invention :
  • Taking into account the tasks and studies carried out by the employee to arrive at this invention;
  • Consideration of the employee’s actual duties and remuneration at the time of the invention ;
  • Circumstances surrounding the invention, difficulties in putting it into practice ;
  • Employee’s personal contribution to the invention.

Objective factors related to the company’s use of the invention:
  • Possible transfer of licenses to third parties ;
  • Potential commercial benefit of the invention.

Important: The employee must be informed in writing of the elements taken into account to determine this additional remuneration. The method of calculation and payment of the remuneration, as well as the start and end of the payment period, must be agreed in writing, except in the case of a lump-sum payment made in a single instalment.

Unpatentable inventions: rewarding innovation

Not all inventions are patentable. However, the Syntec Convention recognizes that such innovations also deserve a bonus. The choice of remuneration remains at the discretion of the company.

Software creation at Syntec companies: clear rules

Digital and IT companies come under the Syntec Convention. This agreement is clear: any software developed by an employee for his or her company belongs to the company, which holds all copyright.

🔑 Practical advice:

We recommend including specific clauses in the contracts of employees with creative functions:

  • Intellectual property clause: clearly define the terms of remuneration.
  • Confidentiality clause: protect your company’s secrets.
  • Non-competition clause: make sure talent doesn’t become a threat.

Need a customized contract? Cabinet DESRUMAUX AVOCATS is there to guide you and propose models adapted to your needs.

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The French Supreme Court reforms the right to paid leave during sick leave

Harmonization of vacation pay legislation

In two rulings dated September 13, 2023, the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) brought French vacation pay law into line with European law.

Previously, under the French Labor Code, periods of absence due to illness, whether work-related or not, were not fully taken into account when calculating paid leave. This practice was contrary to European Union law.

Court of Cassation decisions

The Cour de cassation has issued the following two decisions:

Acquiring paid leave during non-work-related sick leave

The French Supreme Court has ruled that the provisions of French law do not comply with European Union law.

In other words, employees suffering from an illness or accident of any kind, whether occupational or non-occupational, will continue to acquire paid leave entitlements for the duration of their absence from work.

(Cass.soc. September 13, 2023, no. 22-17.340)

Acquiring paid leave after a workplace accident

Contrary to previous French law, the French Supreme Court has ruled that in the event of an accident at work or occupational disease, vacation pay cannot be limited to one year.

From now on, paid leave will be earned for the entire duration of the work stoppage, and will no longer be limited to a single year.

(Cass. Soc. September 13, 2023, no. 22-17.638)

Things to remember :

  • Paid leave must now be calculated taking sick leave into account.
  • This decision applies to the 5 statutory weeks of paid leave, as well as to conventional vacations.
  • For earlier periods, companies are advised to check whether adjustments are necessary for the last three years, as vacation pay is in the nature of wages and is subject to a three-year statute of limitations. In this case, you’ll need to set aside a provision if necessary.

Worth knowing:

These rulings also raise an important question concerning the limit on paid vacation entitlement for employees on sick leave.

If the employee is off work for several years, will he or she continue to earn paid vacation that can then be carried forward?

For the time being, the answer is yes, unless your company’s collective bargaining agreement sets a time limit on the deferral of paid vacations.

For example, European case law has accepted a 15-month carry-over period for annual leave entitlement, but considered a 9-month period to be too short.

This deferral right must therefore be limited to at least 12 months.

In anticipation of the expected and necessary legal changes to frame this new case law, DESRUMAUX AVOCATS is at your disposal to answer any questions you may have concerning the management of paid leave for your employees on sick leave.

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SYNTEC Index

The SYNTEC index was created in 1961 and recognized by the Ministry of Economy and Finance in 1974.

It is of particular importance to companies in this sector, as it provides an accurate and transparent representation of cost trends.

What is the SYNTEC index?

The SYNTEC index measures changes in labor costs for services provided by companies in the SYNTEC sector, within the framework of certain projects (long-term contracting, software or application maintenance, etc.).

It consists of five digits, including two decimal places.

What is the purpose of the Syntec index?

This index is used within the industry to update or revise the financial clause of a contract, according to a formula specified in the clause.

This index may, where appropriate, be coupled with other economic indices, depending on the nature of the service provided.

How is this index calculated?

The Syntec index is calculated monthly, based on responses to a survey of companies belonging to a control group within the sector.

Once these responses have been obtained, a monthly report is drawn up, showing the average full-time equivalent workforce of these companies and the total gross salaries corresponding to this workforce.

Based on these results, a calculation is made to measure the change in the sum of gross payroll and the sum of full-time headcount, relative to the working time in question. The resulting index is then smoothed over a 12-month period.

Since 2019, the Syntec index has been revised to incorporate methodological changes recommended by INSEE.

This revised, more precise index is now produced each month by calculating the average payroll and corresponding full-time equivalent workforce declared by the control group, by sector (Digital, Engineering and Consulting) and by employee bracket (20-199 employees / 200-499 employees / 500 employees and over).

Since September 2022, this revised index has been the only one published and monitored.