Have you been on sick leave at least once between 2009 and 2024? It is very likely that no paid leave days were accrued, but you might be able to recover some! This offer expires soon…

Before

Before April 24, 2024, only work-related sick leaves allowed the accrual of paid leave during the leave period.

Example:

If you were on non-work-related sick leave for an entire month, you lost 2.5 working days (or 2.08 business days according to the company’s calculation method) of paid leave.

Plot Twist

On September 13, 2023, a decision by the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation)¹ aligned with EU law, which provides for the accrual of paid leave during non-work-related sick leave.

This decision serves as case law until the DDADUE 2024 Law, which came into force on April 24, 2024, definitively clarifies the situation² ³.

Thus, non-work-related sick leaves now allow the accrual of up to 2 working days (or 1.66 business days) per month. This is equivalent to 4 weeks per year.

For reference, the accrual of paid leave outside of sick leave (or during work-related sick leave) is 5 weeks per year. This represents 2.5 working days (or 2.08 business days) per month.

Recovering Unaccrued Paid Leave Days

You are still with the company you were in on April 24, 2024

You have until April 23, 2026, to claim the paid leave days owed to you or to file a claim with the Labor Council (Conseil de prud’hommes) if necessary.

The retroactivity period spans from April 23, 2024, back to December 1, 2009. For this period, it is possible to recover paid leave days for non-work-related sick leaves only if the number of paid leave days accrued during the acquisition period (usually from June 1 to May 31) does not already reach 24 working days (or 20 business days).

Example:

You were on sick leave for 2 months in 2015. You already accrued 25 working days (or 21 business days) thanks to the 10 months worked during the rest of the acquisition period. Since the minimum of 24 working days (or 20 business days) has been reached, it is not possible to obtain additional days retroactively.

You left the company before or after April 24, 2024

If you are no longer with the company you were in on April 24, 2024 (because you left before or after this date) or if you did not act before April 24, 2026, you can no longer go back to 2009.

The three-year statute of limitations applies instead. You therefore have 3 years to act (amicably or by filing a claim with the Labor Council) from the date of termination of your employment contract. You can then recover the paid leave days (or their compensation) due for sick leaves going back up to 3 years before the request (or the filing with the Labor Council)⁴.

Again, this request may be denied if you have already accrued at least 24 working days (or 20 business days) during the reference period in question.

If you want to go further:

This is the case that is difficult for the employer to contest, where you should be able to succeed amicably with a simple request.
However, there are other interpretations⁵ of the law that could be argued, although it would not be surprising if the employer initially refuses.

Thus, if your request concerns sick leaves from more than 3 years ago and the employer cites the statute of limitations as a reason for refusal, you could argue that the French Supreme Court decision of September 13, 2023, indicates that the 3-year limitation period only begins from the date you became aware of the facts allowing you to exercise your rights.

This awareness of the facts occurred with the publication of the law in the Official Journal on April 23, 2024, or at the very least with the publication of the Supreme Court decision on September 13, 2023. The 3-year limitation period could therefore have started on one of these dates.
In this case, you could claim sick leave days from the 3 years preceding the termination of your employment contract, even if the termination occurred more than 3 years ago.

Am I Affected?

To estimate the number of leave days you can recover, you will need to check the payslip from the last month of each paid leave acquisition period (usually May). On this payslip:

If you see that you accrued at least 24 working days (or 20 business days) of paid leave for period N, then you cannot recover any.
If, on the other hand, you accrued fewer days and were on sick leave during the acquisition period, then you can recover some.

This recovery mainly concerns people who had long periods of sick leave.
However, it can also concern a few days of leave, especially for the year of arrival or departure from the company, where it is more likely that you did not reach the quota of 24 working days (since you did not accrue leave over 12 months but on a pro rata basis), and thus a few days of leave could be enough to round up the number of accrued paid leave days.

For information, at Positive Group France, the calculation is done in business days.

From April 24, 2024

From April 24, 2024, when you are on non-work-related sick leave, you automatically benefit from paid leave days (2 working days or 1.66 business days per month).
Make sure to verify that you have actually accrued them.

Example:

You were on sick leave in September and October 2024. You therefore accrued 10x2.5 working days + 2x2 working days, totaling 29 working days (or 24.12 business days rounded to 25) over the period.

If you have questions or need assistance in making your request to the HR team, contact us 😉

Sources