Vacation pay: Resistance pays

Most employees saw an increase in their February paycheck. That extra payment, which varies greatly from one person to another, is the result of a court case brought by SUD that resulted in a ruling by the Paris court ordering AFP to immediately settle the vacation differential owed to

Take a look at your paycheck

Presented here is an example from the February paycheck a press employee. The principle is the same for all French contract employees, whatever their category.
The entry REGUL DIXIEME CP2 indicates that the employee received a gross settlement of €172.04 for vacation differential pay for vacation taken between 1 June 2015 and 31 December 2015.

The €172.04 is the amount our employer held back without our consent and without even informing us. Under the guise of "simplification", AFP’s management achieved its real objective: boosting the company’s cash flow. It did this by pushing back the payment of the vacation differential to the end of June 2016. While this helped AFP’s cash flow, it reduced the buying power of its employees. The Paris court agreed with SUD, and ordered the immediate payment of any vacation differential due. Everyone can look at their paycheck to see the amount of the zero interest loan they involuntarily made their employer.

The lines ABS CONGES PAYES 2 and INDEM CONGES PAYES 2 show that AFP is applying the second point of the Paris court ruling to carry out immediate payment of the vacation differential. In the example, the employee took 6 days of vacation, for which a deduction of €958.51 was made from the salary and a vacation indemnity of €987.23 was paid. The differential is €28.72. The head of HR wanted to retain that amount until the end of June. However the Paris court ordered the vacation differential (based on a 10th of what you earned the previous year, if that is more than your current monthly salary) But the Paris court ordered a complete and immediate payment of the vacation differential the month following the use of vacation time, as AFP had been practicing since conforming with the law in 2011.

Management had to break open its piggy bank earlier than planned. This shows union action can achieve results, even during a period when social and labor rights are under attack. Resistance is not futile. Submission is not our only choice.

Paris, 10 March 2016
SUD-AFP (Solidarity-Unity-Democracy)