HR Future: Legal Highlights | Special Edition

Provision is now made for an initial parental leave for a period of up to 180 consecutive days, which includes an optional period of 60 days to be shared equally between both parents — at a daily amount equal to 100% of the beneficiary's reference remuneration.

With regard to the father's exclusive leave, the father is now required to take 14 of the 28 days consecutively immediately following the birth.

The breastfeeding leave entitlement shall no longer be maintained throughout the entire duration of breastfeeding. Instead, it shall be limited to the period until the child reaches two years of age.

The employee is entitle to the leave provided that she demonstrates she is breastfeeding, by means of a medical certificate issued on a six-monthly basis.

The flexible working hours of an employee with family responsibilities must be requested by the employee and drawn up by the employer, and must be adjusted to accommodate the special forms of organisation of working time arising from the company's operating hours or the nature of the duties performed by the employee.

There is likewise introduced, for employees with family responsibilities, the possibility of carrying out their work under a continuous working day arrangement, where this is provided for in a collective labour agreement (“CBA”) or is agreed with the employer.

It is no longer possible to establish a trial period of 180 days on the basis of the employee's status as a first-time jobseeker or as a long-term unemployed person.

The provision which stipulated the reduction or exclusion of the trial period on the basis of the duration of a professional traineeship with a positive assessment, carried out for the same activity with a different employer, has been repealed.

The employer must ensure that decisions regarding recruitment and selection, work organisation, appraisal, career progression, the application of disciplinary sanctions, and the maintenance or termination of the employment contract are not taken without human intervention, which may confirm, amend or revoke the decision proposed by algorithms or other artificial intelligence systems.

The employee has the right to challenge and to appeal hierarchically against any decision affecting him or her concerning the matters referred to above, where such decision has been based exclusively on algorithms or other artificial intelligence systems.

The employee shall be entitled, in each year, to a minimum number of hours of continuous training determined in accordance with the following terms: thirty hours, in the case of micro-enterprises; forty hours, in all other enterprises. An employee engaged on a fixed-term contract, for a period equal to or exceeding three months, shall be entitled to a minimum number of training hours proportional to the duration of the contract in that year. An employee subject to a part-time working arrangement shall be entitled, in each year, to a minimum number of training hours proportional to the contracted working period in that year. In the years of commencement and termination of the contract, the employee shall be entitled to a number of training hours proportional to the duration of the contract in the respective year.

The maximum duration of a fixed-term contract is now three years and may be renewed up to three times; the total duration of renewals is no longer limited to the duration of the initial period of the contract.

The conclusion of a fixed-term contract in cases involving the launch of a new activity of uncertain duration, or the commencement of operations of an undertaking or establishment, is no longer limited to undertakings with fewer than 250 employers. It is now possible to engage an employee on a fixed-term basis where that employee has never carried out work under a permanent contract, or where the employee is in a situation of long-term or very long-term unemployment. In such cases, the duration of the contract may not exceed two years from, respectively, the commencement of the justifying reason or the date of conclusion of the contract.

The engagement on a term basis of an employee who has retired on grounds of old age or invalidity is subject, ab initio, to the terms applicable to the conversion of a fixed-term contract following retirement on grounds of old age or after the employee reaches the age of 70.
The duration of an uncertain-term employment contract may not exceed five years.

Upon termination of the service commission, should the employee elect to terminate the employment contract, the employee shall only be entitled to compensation if the service commission shall have lasted for a minimum period of six years.

Communications that contain an express indication that no response is required outside normal working hours shall not fall within the prohibition on contacting the employee during the rest period.

The group bank of hours, which permitted the employer to apply this regime to the entirety of the employees within a team, section, or economic unit, is hereby revoked.

In the absence of a CBA, the bank of hours regime may be established by express agreement between the employer and the employee.

The exemption from working hours shall henceforth be available in respect of positions involving technical complexity.

The overtime limits for full-time employees may be increased up to 300 hours per year by means of a CBA. In the case of micro-enterprises, the limit may be increased by 20% where an absence exceeding 20% of the respective workforce is verified.

A new category of justified unpaid absence is hereby established, to be taken immediately before or after the holiday period, up to a maximum of two days per year, upon request by the employee, which the employer may only refuse on the grounds of imperative operational requirements of the undertaking.

In the transfer of an economic unit without a legal transaction between the parties, the general provisions relating to information and consultation shall not apply; notwithstanding the foregoing, the transferor shall inform the employees' representatives, or the employees themselves, of the transfer and of its expected date, and the transferee shall promote consultation with a view to reaching an agreement on the measures it intends to apply to the employees as a consequence of the transfer.

The extinction of an employee's labour credit by way of abdicative remission shall henceforth be permissible in cases where the employee expressly declares the waiver of such credit, by means of a written declaration with notarial certification, in accordance with the law, or where the employee is assisted by a collective representation structure of employees at the time of the formalisation of the waiver.

The provision prohibiting recourse to the procurement of services from third-party entities for the purpose of fulfilling needs that had been met by an employee whose employment contract was terminated within the preceding twelve months, following a collective dismissal or a redundancy dismissal, is hereby revoked.

The compensation payable upon collective dismissal shall henceforth correspond to 15 days of base remuneration and seniority payments for each complete year of the employee's length of service.

The claim for reinstatement, within the scope of judicial proceedings for the assessment of the regularity and lawfulness of the dismissal, shall place the employee under an obligation to provide security in an amount equivalent to the compensation received

The employer may apply to the court for an order excluding reinstatement, on the grounds of facts and circumstances rendering the employee's return gravely prejudicial to and disruptive of the undertaking's operations. This faculty is no longer limited to micro-enterprises or to managerial or directorial positions.

Where the court excludes reinstatement, the employee shall be entitled to compensation calculated at between 45 and 60 days' base remuneration and seniority payments for each complete year or fraction of service, subject to a minimum equivalent to six months' base remuneration and seniority payments

In small, medium, and large enterprises without unionised emplopyees, trade unions may convene meetings outside the general working hours of the workforce, provided that the subjective, objective, and geographical scope of the trade union, as set out in its statutes, encompasses the workers of the enterprise.

The aforementioned trade unions may furthermore request that the employer disseminate on an Intranet site, display or permit the display of notices, communications, information, or other texts relating to trade union affairs and to the socio-professional interests of the employees.

Without prejudice to the rules governing the concurrence of negotiated CBAs, and save for the express objection of a non-unionised employee or of an interested trade union in respect of its members, the employer may determine the application of a CBA to all employees of the undertaking or establishment. Where more than one CBA is applicable, the employer may only determine the general application of the agreement covering the greatest number of employees, whether by undertaking or by occupation, within the undertaking.

The provision which, in cases of outsourcing of services, required the application to the service provider of the CBA binding upon the beneficiary of the activity, where such instrument was more favourable to the workers, is hereby repealed.

A CBA whose cessation of effect is contingent upon its replacement by another CBA may be repudiated at any time once four years have elapsed from the date of its entry into force. Following repudiation, the agreement shall remain in force under a survival regime for the duration of the negotiation period, including the conciliation, mediation, or voluntary arbitration phase, for a maximum period of 12 months. Upon expiry of this period, either party may notify the ministry responsible for labour affairs and the other party that the negotiation process has concluded without agreement, whereupon the agreement shall lapse on the first working day of the month following the said notification.