Strike of March 7: I cannot go to work despite my efforts, will I be paid?
The sixth day of actions promises to be massive against pension reform and its postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64. The French, still mostly hostile to the executive’s project, according to polls, must prepare to live 24 hours of a country “at a standstill” as promised by the unions. Users of public transport, particularly in the Paris region, are warned: traffic will be “very disrupted”, announced RATP and SNCF.
What will happen if, despite his efforts, an employee who does not have the possibility of teleworking does not manage to reach his place of work? Does the employer have to pay him? As a general rule, the employee arranges with his boss to convert his day of absence into RTT or paid leave, underline the specialists in labor law.
No impact on salary?
But what if the employee refuses, alleging that he spent that day trying to get back to his job? “He will not be paid because he could not go to his place of work”, assures Caroline André-Hesse, lawyer in labor law and individual and collective social relations.
For her colleague Delphine Borgel, also specialized in labor law, this assertion can be called into question. “If the employer decides not to pay his employee for this day when the latter has done everything to come and that he justifies it, he contravenes the principle of the prohibition of the pecuniary penalty provided for in Article L1331-2 of the Labor Code,” she said. But, nuance the lawyer, “it is a school hypothesis, because in reality the employee anticipates and organizes himself to go to his work”.
