Labor & Employment

The 2022 Rectifying Finance Law of August 16, 2022 provides for social measures to improve purchasing power that the employer can take advantage of.

These measures include, but are not limited to, the new value-sharing bonus, more flexibility on professional expenses, the buyback of RTT days and new provisions to support employee savings.

In case of unsubstantiated abuse of a fundamental freedom relied upon to justify the dismissal of an employee, the dismissal is void even if other grounds could justify the termination of the employment contract.

In a decision issued on June 29, 2022, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) applied for the first time the principle of “contaminating ground for dismissal” in the context of the use of freedom of expression.

In order to strengthen the protection of whistleblowers and prevent the risks of retaliation measures within their company, Law No. 2016-1691 of December 9, 2016 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of economic life requires companies with more than 50 employees to set up an internal whistleblowing system.

Law No. 2022-401 of March 21, 2022 designed to improve the protection of whistleblowers requires companies to update their internal whistleblowing system.

The “Protection of purchasing power” draft Bill dated June 27, 2022 reforms the so-called Macron bonus implemented in 2018.

As from August 1, 2022, companies will be entitled to to pay their employees an annual purchasing power bonus exempt from income tax and social security contributions under certain conditions.

In a decision issued on May 12, 2022, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) recalled that the filing by the employer of the optional profit-sharing agreement after the 15-day period following its conclusion results in the loss of the right to social security exemptions for the first financial year in which the agreement becomes effective.

Although employees enjoy, within and outside the company, the right to freedom of expression, sexist comments made by an employee outside of his/her working time can justify a dismissal for serious misconduct, as recently ruled by the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) in a decision handed down on April 20, 2022.