New thresholds to be taken into account in labour law as from 1 January 2020
The PACTE Act as of 22 May 2019, and its two decrees of 31 December 2019, reformed the staffing thresholds on a number of human resources issues (Decrees No. 2019-1586 and No. 2019-1591).
- Harmonization of headcount counting methods in the Labor Code and the Social Security Code
Only holders of an employment contract and non-statutory employees eligible for unemployment insurance are included in the reference headcount of a company. Corporate officers are therefore excluded from the headcount.
- New rule for calculating the annual reference period
The annual headcount in a given year is the average number of employees employed in each month of the previous calendar year. This average does not include months in which no employees are employed.
- Counting for internal regulations Implementation
The number of employees needed to implement the internal regulations increases from 20 to 50. This obligation becomes effective “at the end of a period of 12 months from the date on which the threshold of 50 employees has been reached for 12 consecutive months following the creation of the company“.
- Workforce for the provision of catering premises
The number of employees required to provide a food service facility within the company has been increased from 25 employees “who normally wish to have their meals at their place of work” to 50 employees (the notion of wish has been removed).
As regards the simple provision of a catering facility under good health and safety conditions, this now concerns all “establishments with fewer than 50 employees” (previously 25).
