From April 19, an employee who abandons his post will be presumed to have resigned. If the employee can block this decision, this nevertheless complicates access to unemployment benefits.
Are you tired of your job and have decided to give up your job while waiting for a dismissal? Bad news: from Wednesday April 19, 2023, an employee who abandons his workstation and who will not have taken it back at least two weeks after a formal notice will henceforth be presumed to have resigned. Published at Official newspaper this Tuesday, April 18, the decree implementing article 4 of the law of December 21, 2022 on emergency measures relating to the functioning of work with a view to full employment has come to set the new procedure for the implementation of this presumption of resignation.
Considered to have resigned after a minimum of 15 days of absence
Until now, an employee who no longer came to work without providing an explanation often ended up being dismissed for misconduct. He could then, under certain conditions, receive unemployment insurance. But from now on, the absent employee will be considered as having resigned. To assert this presumption, the employer must give formal notice to his employee to justify his absence and to return to work by registered letter or by letter delivered by hand against receipt, within a time limit he sets, which cannot be less than 15 days. Once this period has elapsed, the employee is considered to have resigned. He will therefore not be able to claim unemployment benefits.
Note that on its website, the Minister of Labour, Full Employment and Integration explains that the employer can decide not to give formal notice to his employee who has voluntarily abandoned his post. In this case, the employer keeps the employee in his workforce. The employee’s employment contract is not broken but only suspended; the remuneration of the employee is therefore not due.
Nevertheless, legitimate reasons may be retained to prevent this presumption of resignation. Thus, an employee who asserts medical reasons, who exercises his right of withdrawal or strike, who refuses to carry out an instruction contrary to a regulation, or who refutes a modification of the employment contract at the initiative of the employer will not be affected by this new measure. The latter must, however, indicate the reason he invokes in the response to his employer’s formal notice.
According to a study published in February by Dares, the statistical service of the Ministry of Labor, job abandonment was in the first half of 2022 the first reason for dismissal for serious or gross negligence (71%) ahead of other disciplinary causes (27%). . This represents 123,000 employees, including 116,000 on permanent contracts, argued Dares. But these job abandonments represent only 5% of the end of permanent contractsfar behind resignations (43%), conventional terminations (12%), the end of trial periods (12%) and other dismissals (11%).