Will we soon be able to get our vacation days back when we get sick during the holidays?

Falling ill during your vacation, sometimes the one you've been waiting for all year. It's the dread of many employees, because they'll still have to return to work at the end of their planned vacation with their employer. And yet, this practice is illegal according to the European Commission.

On June 18, it sent a letter of formal notice to France for “failure to comply with EU rules on working time.” “The Commission considers that French legislation is therefore not in line with the Working Time Directive and does not guarantee the health and safety of workers,” the Commission stated in its letter.

She also deplores the fact that there is no system in the labor code that would allow employees to postpone their leave in the event of illness during their vacation.

According to a labor lawyer who spoke in Capital , “it is always the first reason for absence from work that takes precedence over the others,” according to the Court of Cassation.

This formal notice therefore seems to be in favor of employees, who could thus postpone their vacations. But this is causing employers to grind their teeth. This is the case for Steven, an artisan baker in Savoie.

“Since September 2023, an employee who is on sick leave can accumulate their 2.5 days of vacation per month, in addition. After a while, we do the most we can for employees, but if the employee breaks something during their vacation, well, that's bad luck.”

"There comes a time when, as an employer, I close for five weeks a year. And now, this summer, I'm not even going to close, I'm going to work as a baker to be able to pay my employees who will be on vacation, so there comes a time when we can't cover everyone's expenses," he said in Les Grandes Gueules this Friday.

This opinion is not shared by railway worker Bruno Poncet. For him, the European Commission's position is the fairest. "Who pays the employee when they're off work? Social Security. So the boss doesn't pay twice," he emphasizes.

For her part, Joëlle Dago-Serry says she is torn.

“On the one hand, it makes sense because if you break your leg while skiing and spend 15 days in the hospital, you can't say you're on vacation. I think we need to find a happy medium. We need to impose stricter conditions, such as serious illnesses and immobilization,” she says.

Despite this formal notice, the rules for employees will not change immediately. France now has a two-month deadline to respond. Depending on whether the response is deemed satisfactory or not, the European Commission may then refer the matter to the European Court of Justice to try to have France condemned.