Rights of employees, paid holidays constitute an obligation for employers who, in accordance with the legal framework, must remunerate them. These paid vacation allowances are to be determined according to two calculation methods. Here are the details.
Introduced in France in the 1920s, paid leave has evolved and now benefits from a very strict regulatory framework. As stipulated in article 3141-1 of the Labor Code, an employee must enjoy monthly leave compensated by the employer. Article 3141-3 indicates that this leave is 2.5 days per month of actual work. They are acquired between June 1 of the previous year and May 31 of the current year, which is equivalent to 30 days per year. The taking of these famous leaves will depend on what has been defined in the collective labor agreements or in the conventions. It is possible to take them all at once, but in principle the duration should not exceed 24 working days.
In the absence of a collective agreement or an agreement stipulating the conditions for leaving on leave, it is up to the employer to set the rules after consulting the staff representatives. It must take into account a certain number of elements:seniority of the employees of the company, their family situation and their activities with other employers possibly (in the case of self-employed workers).
Attention, it is very important to specify that a leave not validated by the employer can be considered as serious misconduct leading to dismissal. The same applies to any late returns.
To find out the compensation that an employee receives on his paid leave, there are two methods of calculation:the 1/10 method and the salary maintenance method.
The first technique consists in defining the gross remuneration received by the employee during the reference period. Reference period means the compulsory period of work for an employee giving the right to paid leave. The calculation includes everything that is salary and salary accessory, namely the base salary, the seniority bonus, the transport bonuses, the basket bonuses, the overtime allowance, the sales representatives' commissions and other similar absences to effective work. On the other hand, the following are to be excluded:exceptional bonuses, reimbursement of professional expenses, bonuses not linked to leave (profit-sharing, 13th month) and absences not assimilated to actual work. Thus, to calculate according to the 1/10 method, it is necessary to add all the remuneration received during June 1 to May 31 and then divide the whole by 10. In the case of an employee earning 1520 euros gross per month having worked during all the reference period, he receives 19,850 euros during this reference period. The calculation is then made as follows:€19,850 x 1/10 =€1,985. It will then suffice to divide 1985 euros by 30 which gives 66.17 euros of daily allowance for paid leave.
The salary maintenance method represents the compensation that the employee should have received if he had continued to work. Over a month, there are 21 working days (days worked in the company). If the employee receives 1,500 euros in compensation, the calculation is made as follows:1,500/21 working days, i.e. 71.42 euros in compensation per working day.
