o Basic things to know
In France, there are two main types of work contract:
- the permanent contract
- the temporary contract.
The minimum you can work is 35 hours per week.
The minimum you can earn is around $12.50 per hour.
The employee can have holidays whilst they paid, calculated from the 1st June of the previous year to the 31st May of the current year. Every worked month, he gains 2.5 days of paid holidays, which correspond at 30 days per year (not including the week-ends and the public holidays) that he can take in one or several time.
If the employee is sick or has an accident at work, he is covered by an organism called the Social Security (Secu). When he first starts working, the employee is automatically inscribed at the Secu. The Secu is financed by the taxes the employee taken on his gross salary. In case of sickness or accident at work, the Secu takes care of the medical expenses (even if the employee is not working whilst he’s sick). If the employee’s GP decides to make him stop working for a while, his wages are paid by the Secu.
Whilst the employee is away, the employer cannot dismiss him.
In case of pregnancy, the female employee cannot be dismissed (she doesn’t have to mention it during her job interview) while her maternity leave and while the 4 following weeks after the delivery (only if the problem is foreign to the pregnancy). She can have, at least, 6 weeks of maternity leave before the delivery and, at least, 10 weeks of parental leave after the birth.
The employee can also ask to be away for a while, for family reason such as
- birth / adoption,
- wedding,
- mourning.
The number of allowed days can change, following the case, but the employee is still paid whilst he’s away.
o Dismissal/Unemployment
They are loads of very different kind of help for the persons who lost their job and/or are unemployed. The most known are the ASSEDIC and the RMI, and they are available according to some criteria.
The ASSEDIC are approachable when the ex-employee has been working at least 6 following months. When he’s inscribed, he receives a wage of replacement calculated from his old wage and only for a limited time. The main condition for that is that he has to look for an other job. Each month, the ex-employee must prove that he’s still looking for a job. Otherwise, his wage of replacement will be cancelled.
The RMI is allowed to people who are +25 and looking for a job. It’s a minimum wage of insertion in order to help the unemployed person to afford his primal needs. Depending on the contract between him and the RMI organism, this wage is paid between 3 months and a year.
o Retirement
They are different kind of retirement following the employee’ status, but basically, retirement is base on the repartition. It means that people who receive a wage are currently paying a contribution, and this contribution is used to pay the pension of the people who are already retired. Then, when this people get retired, their pension will be paid by the contribution paid by the workers.
Retirement is also a collective and obligatory insurance, no matter what status the person has. It has been created to guarantee a pension to all people who are retired.
The length of this insurance is calculated in trimester. Once the employee collect enough trimesters (depending on his status), he is allowed to go on retirement and earn his pension (the amount varies following the status).
Of course, people unemployed or in any leave are also paying a contribution (even via the Secu) and have the same right to retirement than the people who are working.
