Summary
Principle of equality between a part-time employee and a full-time employee
There is a fundamental principle of equality between employees: whether they are on a part-time or full-time contract, employees benefit from the same advantages.
Article L 3123-11 of the Labor Code specifies that this equality concerns all the rights granted by:
- the law ;
- collective conventions or agreements;
- company or establishment agreements.
All employees benefit from the same number of days off
Any employee justifying a presence without absence during the reference period (as a reminder from June 1 of the previous year to May 31 of the current year) must benefit from a right to paid leave of:
- 30 days if counted using the working day method;
- 25 days if the calculation is done according to the method of working days;
The same applies to the part-time employee who must therefore benefit from an identical right in the event of presence, without absence, during the reference period.
Count of vacation days used
Case of a part-time employee:
Assume an employee who works 4 days a week, from Monday to Thursday inclusive (it is sometimes said that the employee is part-time, at the rate of 4/5th of the time).
It will be assumed that the right to paid leave is calculated according to the method of working days, the employee having a right to full paid leave, that is to say 30 days. Let’s admit:
- The employee is on paid leave from the evening of Thursday July 14: Friday 15 and Saturday 16 are not counted, they would not be worked if the employee was not on paid leave;
- The week of July 18 to 24 will be counted for 6 days;
- The week of July 25 to 31 will be counted for 6 days;
- Number of paid vacation days used: 12.
If counted in working days, the number of days used would have been 10 (0 days the 1st week, 5 days the 2nd and 5 days the 3rd).
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thusday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Case of a full-time employee:
Suppose an employee who works 5 days a week, from Monday to Friday inclusive. We will assume that the right to paid leave is calculated according to the working day method, the employee having a full right to paid leave of 30 days.
- The employee is on paid leave from Thursday July 14 in the evening.
- Friday 15 and Saturday 16 are counted: 2 days;
- The week of July 18 to 24 will be counted for 6 days;
- The week of July 25 to 31 will be counted for 6 days;
- Number of days of paid leave used: 14
If counted in working days, the number of days used would have been 11 (1 day the 1st week, 5 days the 2nd and 5 days the 3rd).
Why count a week of 6 days?
This question is often opposed to the previous count. But if we take the count of the full-time employee, we do count Saturday for each full week used as paid leave, and yet the employee only works from Monday to Friday inclusive.
Thus part-time employees and full-time employees benefit from the same right to paid leave, i.e. a maximum of 5 weeks per year. The principle of equal treatment between full-time and part-time employees is effectively respected.