On Thursday November 11, a public holiday, your business is closed. You had a lot of vacation requests for November 12th. You wonder whether it would be irrelevant to close the business. As an employer, you can build a bridge and therefore close the business. But be aware that you have no obligation to grant a bridge due to the request of several employees.
Bridging the gap: definition
“Bridging the gap” consists of not working 1 or 2 working days between a public holiday and a weekly day of rest or a day before annual leave (Labor Code, art. L. 3121-50).
There is no legal provision requiring the employer to grant a bridge. Its implementation may result from:
- a unilateral decision by the employer;
- a collective agreement;
- of use.
If you want to give your employees a day off, this will change working hours. There is therefore a procedure to follow.
Grant the November 11 bridge
Employer’s decision
You have decided to close your business on November 12th.
Your decision is not linked to the application of a collective agreement. In this case, you should consult the social and economic committee, if it exists.
You inform the employees by posting the new collective schedule. This document is posted in each of the workplaces to which it applies. When the employees are employed outside, this schedule is displayed in the establishment to which they are attached.
The labor inspectorate must also be informed of the methods of recovery (Labor Code, art. R. 3121-33).
For a model memo to inform your employees of the installation of this bridge, Editions Tissot will advise you on their new documentation ” Commented models for personnel management Activ ‘ “. You have ready-to-use templates and a personalized document generator.
Grant a bridge under a collective agreement
If you apply a collective agreement, it is your responsibility to also inform the staff representatives, employees and the labor inspectorate.
Recover the hours not worked during the bridge
In the absence of agreement, the hours which were not worked because of the bridge are recovered in the 12 months preceding or following the interruption of work. They are collected either before the bridge or after the bridge. Employees cannot recover a few hours before November 11, and the rest after that date.
The recovery of lost hours must not increase the working hours of the company by more than one hour per day, nor by more than 8 hours per week (Labor Code, art. R. 3121-35).
You must also inform the labor inspectorate of the procedures for recovering these lost hours (Labor Code, art. R. 3121-33).
Know that you have no obligation to recover these lost hours.
And remember, recovery hours are not overtime. They are therefore remunerated at the normal rate.
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