Background information

The agreement reached between the management of the LCL bank and representative trade union organisations CFDT and SNB on 7 April 2020 concerns exceptional measures to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic. It provides for three main measures: no recourse to short-time working, maintenance of gross pay for all active employees, and changes to the rules on taking paid leave or leave linked to reduced working hours.

In particular, the bank plans to require employees to take ten days off work, including five working days of paid leave, before 31 May, on dates set by the bank. The agreement, which implements the measures provided for by Ordinance 2020-323 of 25 March 2020, is rather balanced as it supplements the temporary measures allowed by the ordinance with a number of guarantees for employees.

Content of measure

Arrangements for taking paid leaves

Pursuant to Order 2020-323 of 25 March 2020, the agreement allows the employer to impose the taking - or modification of the dates of taking - of 5 days of paid leave. The notice period is 3 days (whereas the ordinance allows this period to be reduced to 1 day). The agreement reduces the number of days that can be imposed for employees whose leaves entitlements are not complete, on a pro rata basis. The agreement gives a priority for taking of leave during the period from 7 April to 9 May 2020, which undoubtedly corresponds to a desire to use up the leave before a full resumption of activity envisaged later in the year. The days of paid leave already validated are deducted from the total number of days that may be imposed.

Adjustment of working time reduction days

In addition, the agreement allows the employer to impose or modify the dates for taking 5 working days of reduced working time (RTT) – whereas the ordinance allows the employer to impose or postpone up to 10 days of RTT –] again with a notice period of 3 days. This rule applies only to employees with 20 or more days of reduced working time for the year 2020. For other employees, this rule applies on a pro rata basis. Finally, for employees on a specific work stoppage during the COVID-19 pandemic (for childcare, for example), the taking of leave and RTT days is imposed after this stoppage, unless it lasts 30 days at most, in which case the employee is exempt.

Use of measure

The agreement applies to about 17,500 employees of the LCL bank in France.

Contents

• Income protection
• Leave arrangements
• Working time flexibility

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment Workers in non-standard forms of employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Social partners jointly Trade unions Company / Companies	Companies Employer

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Company level

Involvement

The agreement has been negotiated by all representative trade unions within the bank LCL and signed by the two largest representative trade unions representing over 50% of the votes at the last workplace elections.

Views and reactions

The agreement receives the support of the social partners that have signed it.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 25 March 2020: Ordonnance no 2020-323 du 25 mars 2020 portant mesures d’urgence en matière de congés payés, de durée du travail et de jours de repos (www.legifrance.gouv.fr)
• 07 April 2020: Accord collectif portant sur des mesures exceptionnelles en matière de congés paés et RTT dans la cadre de la pandémie COVID-19 au sein de la Bnaque LCL