Paid leave
in France.

When an employee is absent due to illness, the employment contract is suspended. The Social Security Health System in France pays an employee on sick leave a daily benefit from the public health insurance fund (“Caisse primaire d’assurance maladie”). The employee must have worked a minimum of 150 hours in the last 3 months or received a salary totalling at least 1,015 times the amount of the hourly SMIC (Statutory Minimum Wage) over the 6 calendar months before stopping work. A doctor’s note must be submitted to both the employer and the French social security administration within 48 hours of the first sick day.

• The daily allowance for sick leave is 50% of the daily basic wage up to a maximum of €47.03 per day ;
• It starts on the 3rd day of sick leave and continues up to a maximum of 12 months per period of 3 consecutive years.

The employer is legally required only to make up the difference between the public health benefit and the employee’s normal compensation but the employment contract or the CBA that are applicable may include conditions of compensation that are more favourable than those defined by social security. These may go up to the complete repayment of income (this is the case for short-term sick leave in Alsace-Moselle).

The conditions the employee must fulfil for additional benefits from the employer are:

• They must have more than 1 year of employment ;
• Their medical certificate must be provided within 48 hours ;
• They must be entitled to the public health insurance fund ;
• They must be treated in Europe.

Employer benefits start on the 7th day of sick leave – up to 60 days (where there is less than 5 years employment), and a maximum of 180 days (where there is more than 31 years employment) per year, as follows:

• 1 to 5 years employment: for the first 30 days the employee receives 90% of salary and for the next 30 days 66.66% of salary ;
• 6 to 10 years employment: for the first 40 first days the employee receives 90% of salary and then for the next 40 days 66.66% of salary;
• Each period of 30 days is increased by 10 days per additional 5 years of employment up to more than 31 years employment, when for the first 90 days the employee receives 90% of salary and then for the next 90 days 66.66% of salary.