Again - employment issues in France

[flyingcloud]

I have posted on this before - had problems with my (English-based) employer sorting out my maternity pay.

They did eventually sort it out.

Rather than taking 16 weeks off for maternity leave, I took 8 weeks... with the proviso that I could work the other 8 weeks part time. This was agreed.

Oh I work mornings from home and I work afternoons 'on the road' or in different locations. I am their sole employee in France, on a French contract (Cadre). They have hired employment specialists to deal with all of this.

So it went like this: 4 weeks part time work followed by eight weeks maternity leave followed by another four weeks part time work.

The 8 weeks ML were on full pay, which is fantastic. However the other 8 weeks part-time work were paid on an hourly basis.

I am now coming to the end of my second part-time stint and will go back full-time next week. However the last four weeks I have ended up doing a lot more hours as there has a) been so much to catch up on and b) there has been a huge amount happening in my job during those four weeks. I am keeping track of my hours and there are days when I work 9 hours.

So my questions are
a) is there a French version of CAB that can advise me on this?
b) if I had taken the full 16 weeks would I have been entitled to full pay for those 16 weeks, ie - was I penalised financially for staring my ml late and finishing early?
c) If I work a day from say 8am-6pm can I expect to have a paid lunch hour/break in those hours. My company are reducing the hours of those days from 9 to 8 hours as I said that I do take an hour out in the day to eat lunch.

d) have you really read this far? Thank you so much for bearing with me!

[othersideofthechannel]

I think you can get information about your rights from the local 'inspection du travail' here
They were quite helpful when I wasn't clear about a couple of points in my employment contract.

[flyingcloud]

Thank OSOTC.

There's one close by so I'll go and see them soon...

[FrogLover]

I recently had problems with an emplyer (for different reasons as I don't have any DCs yet) and the Inspection du travail referred me to the Maison de la justice et du droit. I can't remember where you are based and I'm not sure if these places exist outside of Paris but they are well worth checking out.

They appear to be the closest thing to the UK CAB, with a number of legal advisors, each specialised in a different field. The guy that I saw was fabulous, he looked up the relevant texts from my convention collective, wrote letters for me and even agreed to stay late to see me when I was in a complete melt down after my employer called me just after I left (and just as the maison de la justice was closing up for the evening.

Here in Paris as demand is high you have to call on Monday morning to get an appointment for the week after. It looks like you can find your local maison here

[AuldAlliance]

Each bar (barreau) organises free legal consultations in a variety of locations as well as the Maison de Justice.

If you google your local barreau it should give information about these.

This is the page for the Paris bar.

You may not be lucky enough to get an appt. with a specialist in droit du travail, but a good lawyer should be able to give sound info and advice.

Good luck!

[flyingcloud]

Thanks very much - not sure when I am ever going to find the time, but my job is currently very stressful and I am questioning why I put so much into it right now.

[AuldAlliance]

Flyingcloud, it's probably unethical of me to tout him on here, but my DH is an avocat.

This isn't at all his field, and I think you're miles away from where we are, but he might be able to point you towards people who could help out. Do you want me to ask him?

[flyingcloud]

Thanks AuldAlliance I appreciate your suggestion.

I think I just need to talk to someone, it can be so depressing when work is like this and sometimes it's the powerlessness that can get one down. It's all the worse for the fact that I have to deal with some incredibly talented but difficult personalities who make being at work pretty miserable (but I love my job and I would never, ever get one as good in my field again).

Arrgh! Thanks again, I am still reflecting on it all.