Restaurant tickets are still popular in France, even if the card format is increasingly preferred to the traditional paper ticket. In 2023, nearly 7.5 billion euros of restaurant vouchers will have been put into circulation. Financed between 50% and 60% by the employer and the rest by a deduction from the monthly salary, they are not always unanimous, some employees preferring to keep this share of salary, almost 10% of meal vouchers do not being never used.
Can I refuse to receive meal vouchers from my employer?
If you are part of this category of employees, know that your employer cannot force you to accept meal vouchers if you do not want them. According to articles R3262-1 to R-3262-3 of the Labor Code, an employee can refuse meal vouchers and therefore not be subject to the resulting salary deduction. However, you cannot claim financial compensation from your employer, in particular equivalent to the employer’s contribution to the financing of the meal ticket. The converse is also true: an employee cannot demand that his employer receive meal vouchers if the latter does not want it.
What are the employer commitments to make regarding meal vouchers?
An employee refusing meal vouchers must explicitly express his refusal in the form of a written and signed declaration, sent to the employer. An employer must also continue to guarantee its employees the possibility of eating at their workplace, even if it distributes meal vouchers to them. If a catering service is not obligatory, it must at least provide them with a room separate from the workplace to allow them to have lunch. THE articles R4228-22 and R4228-23 of the Labor Code also require companies to provide a room equipped with a refrigerator, a microwave and an access point to drinking water to their employees if they employ more than 25 employees.