Redeployment of employees

The Law of 24 July 2020 amending the Labour Code, the Social Security Code and the Law of 23 July 2015 concerning the internal and external redeployment system ("Law") is applicable from 1 November 2020.

This Law aims to optimise the procedures in force for professional redeployment and introduces numerous changes, in particular:

• the conditions for referral to the Joint committee (Commission mixte) are less severe, the employee will no longer be required to hold a risk position and have ten years' seniority. It will be sufficient for the employee to be in possession of an aptitude certificate for the last job or to have 3 years’ seniority with his employer;
• in the event of external redeployment, the employer is required to pay the redeployed employee a lump-sum indemnity which will vary according to the employee's length of service;
• the indemnity to compensate for the difference in salary between the old and new salary ("Compensatory Indemnity") must be requested within six months from the date of the start of execution of the amendment to the employment contract or the new employment contract;
• the Compensatory Indemnity will be calculated differently. It will be reduced by the financial benefits granted by the employer to its employees, so that the redeployed employee will not benefit from it and will always remain at the same level of remuneration;
• decisions following internal or external redeployment will fall under the jurisdiction of the Employment Development Agency (Agence pour le développement de l’emploi); and
• the employee will benefit from special protection against dismissal as soon as the reclassification procedure is initiated.