Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019)

Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) - France (Ratification: 1989)

Article 4 of the Convention. Leave entitlements. The Committee notes with interest that Act No. 2015-1776 of 28 December 2015 on adapting society to the ageing population has replaced the right to “family support leave” with “caregiver leave”, as direct kinship is no longer required. The Committee notes that Act No. 2014-873 of 4 August 2014 on real gender equality created the shared childcare benefit (PrePareE) to replace the free choice of activity supplement (CLCA) as from 1 July 2015, with a view to encouraging fathers’ involvement and making the impact of childcare on working life less disproportionate between mothers and fathers. The Committee nevertheless notes that, according to the 2017 report of the National Observatory for Early Childhood, at the end of 2016, only 4.4 per cent of recipients of the activity supplement were fathers and that the shared childcare benefit was not in fact shared, since the decrease in the payments linked to this benefit is particularly significant after 24 months, at the time when the benefit is to be shared between the mother and father.

Moreover, the Committee notes with interest that the abovementioned Act of 4 August 2014 has extended protection against dismissal following the birth of a child – from which only mothers previously benefited – to fathers, and that Act No. 2016-1088 of 8 August 2016 has extended this period of protection from four to ten weeks. The Committee notes the study that was published in March 2016 by the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees), according to which 68 per cent of fathers with at least one child under 3 years of age who were eligible for paternity leave took such leave. Lastly, it notes the Government’s indication that the Labour Code establishes several types of leave to enable employees – both men and women – to bear their family responsibilities while remaining in employment. Leave is available to employees: to undergo medical examinations during pregnancy and after childbirth; when a woman gives birth to a child; when a man fathers a child; when adopting a child; to take care of a child; to look after a child who is ill; to look after a child who is seriously ill, has a disability or has been the victim of an accident; for family events (weddings, deaths, births); to take care of a close relation suffering from a serious pathology or condition; and to take care of a close relation with a disability or loss of autonomy of a particularly serious nature. Acts Nos 2014-459 of 9 May 2014, 2014-873 of 4 August 2014 and 2016-41 of 26 January 2016 enable, respectively, employees to donate days of rest to a colleague whose child is seriously ill; the leave authorization granted to women for pregnancy check-ups to be extended to their spouse, civil-union partner or live-in partner; and a new leave authorization for employees who use medically-assisted procreation. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the number of men and women benefiting from the daily parental presence allowance and caregiver leave and on the number of employed fathers who have applied for and taken paternity leave (public and private sector employees and self-employed workers). The Government is requested to provide information on any evaluations of the payment of the new shared childcare benefit and its impact on families, as well as on any new measures to take into account the needs of workers with family responsibilities.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.