The rules governing employees’ working hours and rest periods are becoming increasingly complex. Yet efficient personnel management is a major focus for a company’s human resources department. The advent of leave and absence management software has made it possible to simplify this process, while guaranteeing compliance with the employer’s legal obligations and rules. These online tools can be used to create schedules automatically, track employee working hours precisely and improve leave management. Data analysis functionalities enable companies to adjust their operations and optimize the overall organization of working hours and rest periods .
What are the employer’s obligations in terms of employee working hours and rest periods?
Employers are subject to a number of legal obligations concerning the management of their employees’ working hours and rest periods. These are defined in the French Labor Code and in the collective bargaining agreements for each sector of activity. When creating staff schedules, the employer must ensure compliance with the legal working hours in France, i.e. :
- A maximum of 10 hours of consecutive work per day
- 48 hours of actual work per week
- 35h minimum weekly rest period No more than 6 working days per week. Schedules must be submitted to the Labour Inspectorate, which ensures that the law is respected and enforced.
How do I manage vacation requests?
Establish a clear leave and rest days policy
Employers need to define their company’s policy on paid vacations and days off for their teams. The purpose of these parameters is to provide a framework for requests and facilitate the process. They specify :
- How to apply
- Deadlines (for acceptance, refusal, application submission)
- Priority criteria
- The authorized vacation period
The information will be passed on to all company employees.
Create an effective vacation schedule
Once the vacation policy has been established, the employer must integrate vacations and rest periods into a work schedule. A work schedule is a document containing the working hours, rest days and vacations of employees. It is an essential tool for the organization of a company. It can take the form of a table or a calendar, and can be sent to teams in paper or digital form. Clear, consistent schedules are essential to good leave management . Various tools can be used to design efficient schedules. Online HR software is designed to deal with the difficulties encountered when creating schedules, such as last-minute changes, periods of peak activity or the implementation of rotating timetables.
Comply with vacation pay obligations and rules
Employers are obliged to grant paid leave to their employees, whatever their contract (permanent, fixed-term or temporary) or working hours (full-time or part-time). The French Labor Code and collective bargaining agreements for each sector of activity govern the taking of paid leave. Employers are required to comply with these rules and regulations:
- The legal vacation period: the authorized vacation period is generally set by the company, in agreement with employee representatives. In the absence of an agreement between the two parties, you should refer to the collective bargaining agreement for your sector of activity. Whatever the dates set by the employer, the statutory period running from May 1 to October 31 must be included. The company is obliged to give its employees at least one month’s notice.
- Statutory vacation entitlement: after a full year’s work, an employee is entitled to 5 weeks’ paid vacation (i.e. 2.5 days per month accumulated). The calculation of vacation entit lement is based on the dates authorized by the employer or, failing that, on the statutory reference period running from June 1 of the previous year to May 31 of the current year. During this period, employees must take a minimum of 12 days off, and a maximum of 24 working days. The rest of the time off can be taken in instalments over the course of the year.
- Vacation pay: employees are entitled to vacation pay equal to 10% of their total gross salary earned during the reference period. This indemnity includes the usual elements of remuneration, with the exception of year-end bonuses, profit-sharing bonuses and professional expenses. End-of-contract indemnities (fixed-term and temporary contracts) are included in the calculation.
Manage employees’ working and rest times with a software solution
Automated planning
Scheduling schedules and vacations is a complex process. Scheduling errors can lead to :
- Exceeding working hours
- Unpaid overtime
- Insufficient rest for employees.
Personnel management software enables you to automate this process, based on legal provisions and company-specific constraints. Features such as taking into account the availability, skills and constraints of each employee enable optimized schedules to be generated, thus limiting the risk of errors and non-compliance with schedules.
Precise monitoring of working hours
Keeping track of your employees’ working hours is essential to ensure compliance with the rules and obligations in force, and to avoid disputes. Personnel management software reliably and accurately records each employee’s working hours and rest periods. The software’s virtual time and attendance functions, or its connection to access control systems, enable you to record :
- Staff arrivals and departures
- Break times
- Vacations taken
- Overtime worked by teams
A good way to guarantee accuracy and data collection.
Better management of vacations and days off
Scheduling software simplifies leave management and considerably improves communication between employees and the human resources department. Employees can make their leave requests directly online via a dedicated space. The HR department is instantly informed by e-mail or notification. It can view all the vacation schedules of the company’s employees and avoid any conflicts by guaranteeing an equitable distribution of rest periods. The software takes care of sending automated reminders for vacation renewals or periods of employee unavailability.
Analyze data to adjust operations
Personnel management software offers analysis functions that enable human resources managers to adjust their policies in line with the results obtained. Bystudying working hours, absences and overtime worked by employees, trends and recurring problems can be identified. Employers can use the data collected to adjust schedules, forecast staffing needs, rebalance team workloads and improve productivity.
Using personnel management software is an effective way of ensuring compliance with the rules governing employees’ working hours and rest periods. These online tools automate and improve theorganization of employee schedules and leave. This is an effective solution for limiting scheduling errors and facilitating communication between teams and Human Resources. More generally, HR software helps to improve a company’s productivity, by collecting data that can be used to adjust decisions according to the obstacles encountered during the year.
