France - Taking Annual Leave

[carrotsandpeasifyouplease]

Could sombody please settle and arguement my DH and I are having - he has been working in France for 3 months now and swears blind that it is the norm in France that you cannot take any holidays until you have worked in a place a year and so have your holidays saved before you can take it, so you are always using the hoidays from the previous year.

Please tell me this isn't true, I understand if its that he has to earn them first, say 2.5 days a month that you can't take them until you have done that, but surely you don't have to go a whole year without any days off???

I have no knowledge of the french working system but surely this can't be true, I thought one of the big advantages of him working in France would be the big holidays - his contract just states the number of days off he is allowed not when he can taken them.

It just doesn't seem logically or fair to me.

He says that he is "allowed" to take some at christmas in advance of next year but I don't want him to have to go cap in hand every time he wants a holiday this year, surely he is entitled to days off! it just goes against any grain of logic in my head.

I'm afraid he is absolutely right, though I was just as horrified as you when my DH started working there and couldn't believe such a system was possible. I think you 'earn' your holidays from 1 June to 31 May, and then you take what you have earned the following year. So it may not be a whole year he has to work first, but I think always up to the end of May.

I think you just have to be pleased he is allowed to take some off at Christmas :) That first year my DH had to work right through with just the 25th Dec and 1st Jan off as statutory holidays.

oh no, i'm going to have to apologise - thats madness though. Your right about christmas of course and at least its only till june rather than next September, so he was wrong in that it wasn't an actual year (ha, clutching at straws).

Thanks for replying.

Weta's right, and be careful he doesn't have restrictions on when he's allowed to take his holidays either. Where I work we have a 'collective agreement' which means we have to take 4 weeks of holiday in the summer period (and at least 3 of those weeks must be contiguous) and the 5th week before the end of the year

Don't forget that next year (Jun 11 - May 12) he'll only have 9 months worth of days (3 months already worked, plus 6 months until end May) anyway.

Bienvenue en France!

he doesn't work a 35 hour week either! its amazing the preconceptions that are blown away when you actually experience something.

I agree too - BUT if your dh has transferred to France within the same company it may well be possible to get a special dispensation. My DH got this agreed with no real difficulty as only reasonable in the circumstances.... Good luck, and really your DH should have negotiated this right at the start whether same compay or not so morally I'm not sure if you have really totally lost the argument....

Yes, it is the norm on a CDI. Not all companies do leave from 1 June. Where I work it is 1st Jan to 31st Dec.

If he is on a CDD he is able to take the time off as soon as he as earnt it.

Yes, it is normal. I think I was allowed to take some days off from next year's allowance in anticipation during the second half of the annual leave year. I heard that for some people it took a couple of years to be in a position where they weren't robbing leave from next year in anticipation.

However, more and more companies are changing to the more sensible system like is generally seen in the UK. DH started with a new company in France and didn't have to work a year before he could take any holiday. :)

thanks for that - yes he should have negotiated then beforehand, its not the same company, so he'll just have to find out when the leave year starts, honestly he is hopeless.

Remember too, that when the 'jour feriés' are at the weekend, you don't get an extra day to compensate, either. So effectively, unless he works Saturdays there is no day off for either Christmas Day or New Year's Day.