Reed Smith Client Alerts

The French government has introduced five new law and employment law ordinances, dated April 1, 2020 and published in the Official Journal the next day, in accordance with the emergency law to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic of March 23, 2020. We take a brief look below at the main measures contained in these ordinances such as the “Macron 2020 bonus” and the provisions on staff representation.

Autoren: Séverine Martel

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  1. Staff representative bodies

Ordinance no. 2020-389 suspends all ongoing elections of staff representatives, and adjusts the modes of organization available for meetings of social and economic committees (i.e., the staff representative bodies in France), throughout the state of health emergency.

As regards the election of staff representatives:

  • If the election process was initiated before April 3, 2020, the process is suspended as of March 12, 2020 until the date falling three months following the end of the state of health emergency (due to end on August 25, 2020 as of the date of this client alert).
  • If the election process was to be initiated on or after April 3, 2020 (or should have been initiated before that date) – and so during the state of health emergency – companies will have to initiate the election process within three months following the end of the state of health emergency (i.e., as things stand, between May 25 and August 25, 2020).
  • Staff representatives’ existing terms are therefore extended until the results of new elections.
  • If staff representatives’ mandates are terminated less than six months after the end of the period of suspension, there will be no obligation to organize partial elections before the renewal of the social and economic committee.