To help companies and unions to establish the conventional collective break, the Ministry of Labor has published a question-and-answer document on this form of termination of employment contract born in the framework of the reform of the labor code by ordinances.
Pimkie, SoLocal, IBM, PSA … since 1 January 2018, more and more companies are declaring themselves interested in the implementation of a conventional collective break. The general public heard about this term for the first time on August 31, 2017, during the presentation of orders to reform the Labor Code . On this occasion, the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud announced the establishment of a conventional collective break. A surprise, since this point has obviously not been addressed during the negotiation phase. Similarly, the Enabling Bill did not refer to the measure.
The collective conventional break has been in effect since December 22, 2017. Some companies such as PSA (which projects 1,250 conventional breaks in 2018) or Pimkie (which has finally abandoned the project) or the call center manager Teleperformance ( 240 jobs at stake) began in early January 2018 to begin negotiations with the social partners to implement this device which remains framed by the law to avoid disguised social plans or possible discrimination against seniors. On January 20, the Société Générale announced its intention to begin negotiations on a plan of collective conventional breaks. But what is the conventional collective break?
Conventional collective break: definition
The press kit presented at the conference on August 31 says more about this novelty: "Concretely, the negotiation in the company, for all sizes of company, can define a common framework of departure strictly voluntary, and which will have as for the individual conventional break , be approved by the administration.This is to transpose the conventional rupture, set up in 2008, at the collective level ".
Labor Minister Muriel Pénicaud defines the collective conventional break as a measure above all social. She explained her point of view in an interview given to Europe 1 on Monday, January 7, 2018: "the conventional break avoids the trauma of the dismissal (…) .It can take place in some cases of restructuring, negotiation where neither the company nor the employees want to live the trauma of a dismissal but agree to have a negotiated form.
Conventional collective breach and labor law
This notion of collective collective break is detailed in the third ordinance entitled "Ordinance on the Predictability and Securing of Labor Relations". It is written in black and white that an employer wishing to use this device must complete a file that details:
- The maximum number of departures, job losses and the duration of implementation of the plan
- The conditions to be met by the employee to be covered by the plan
- The criteria of separation between potential candidates for departure
- The methods of calculating severance pay paid to the employee that can not be lower than the legal compensation due in case of redundancy (as in the case of a conventional break individual)
- How to apply to leave employees
- Measures to promote the reclassification of employees
- The procedures for monitoring the implementation of the plan
Like the individual individual break, the employer must forward the request to the administration which can validate or not the request. The order states that the administration has 15 days to respond.
