FOCUS- Le Figaro takes stock of this measure adopted in Parliament with the support of the right, as part of the review of the amending budget.
This is one of the emblematic measures of the 2022 amending budget, at the same time as one of the most controversial. During the examination of this text, the executive and the right passed several modifications which allow the French to work more to earn more, according to the famous adage of Nicolas Sarkozy and widely shared by Emmanuel Macron. Among these, the takeover of RTT by employers will concern several million French people. Le Figaro review this case.
Takeover of RTT: what does the law say?
Today, it is already possible to convert RTT into salary, but in a limited number of cases, underlines the report of the Senate Finance Committee. Three situations are listed: first,employees on a day package“can transform”their rest days in addition to salary», in agreement – in writing – with their employer. However, the increase is not tax-exempt.
Then, employees with a time savings account (CET) can “accumulate rights to paid leave or benefit from remuneration, immediate or deferred, in return for periods of leave or rest not taken or amounts that[ils] there [ont] affected“. But only an agreement or a convention can benefit from it.
Finally, last case, employees who have not been able to take their RTT because of their employer can transform them into “salary increase“. This is a special, less common case.
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In view of the three cases provided for by law, the possibility of converting RTT into salary is therefore limited. In 2017, less than 15% of employees were on a day plan, and, the same year, 22% of employees had a CET. However, for certain political groups, the current context pleads for an extension of this system.
What has Parliament proposed?
In the Assembly, the deputies LR, Horizons and Renaissance made several amendments aimed at allowing “employees, with the employer’s agreement, to convert their RTT not taken into salary“. These have been validated with the consent of the government. At the exit of the Senate, which slightly remodeled the proposed device, the text indicates that “the employee, regardless of the size of the company, may, at his request and in agreement with the employer, waive all or part of the days or half-days of rest acquiredsince January 1, 2022. MEPs had set a deadline for the “December 31, 2023“, but the Senate removed it, perpetuating this device.
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In addition, the economic interest for the employee who decides to return one of his RTTs is reinforced by a “salary increase at least equal to the rate of increase for the first overtime hour applicable in the company“. The increase will be 10% minimum in the event of a company or branch agreement, and 25% without an agreement. Finally, the increased salaryis subject to social and tax exemptions“, within the limit of 5000 euros per year and 7500 euros in 2022. There is “no cap“Provided for by the text on the amounts that can be obtained, we specify to the cabinet of Olivier Dussopt. A good deal for the employee, therefore, on the condition of being willing to work more.
Who is concerned ?
The modification validated by the Assembly then opened a little more by the Senate allows a greater number of employees to have the choice of monetizing their RTT. Remember that this is a strictly voluntary approach but that the company is entitled to refuse the monetization of these days. Indeed, it can require employees to put down their RTT so as not to destabilize its cash flow.
In concrete terms, only private sector employees are concerned, not those in the public sector. In addition, the situation does not change for those who have, in the private sector, a CET via their company or who are already on the day plan. Difficult to know the precise number of employees concerned: for the time being, the Ministry of Labor is content to recall that 45% of employees had RTT in 2011, but that a good part of them had a CET or were on a day pass.
What are the arguments for and against?
For the promoters of the measure, it is above all a question of giving flexibility to both employers and employees. The LR deputies thus see it as a means of “better reward work and merit and increase the net salaries of French people“, at the same time as a way of combating labor shortages, by allowing those who wish to work more. A particularly useful provision in sectors under pressure, such as hotels and restaurants, judged the deputy (Renaissance) Mathieu Lefèvre, in public session, seeing it as a “common sense measure“.
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Opposite, the left rises against a measure deemed dangerous for the balance and the health of employees. “You don’t have to work harder to earn more […]. Everything is done to avoid the central issue, which is the revaluation of wages“, Criticized the rebellious deputy Adrien Quatennens. The same mixed report for the unions, which accuse the government of calling into question “working time without attacking it frontally“, in the words of the CGT. Still, this measure supported by the right and the majority should, unless surprised, be validated during the last stages of the examination of the amending budget in Parliament, in the coming hours.
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