GPEC: what is it?
The GPEC (provisional management of jobs and skills) can be considered as a management of the human resources of a company. It is a means of reflecting on the company’s needs in terms of skills, and not just in terms of employment.
This management is both:
- Anticipative: predict the evolution of jobs within the company, taking into account the expected changes at the technical, professional, structural level…;
- Preventive: preserve jobs by giving employees access to training.
The GPEC corresponds to all the measures put in place within the company, making it possible to cope with the constraints of the environment while being in conformity with the possible strategic choices of the company.
The GPEC is therefore based on negotiations between
- The direction ;
- and the social partners or IRP (Staff Representative Bodies).
Since the law of 2005 (sometimes called the “Borloo” law), the GPEC is compulsory for all companies with more than 300 employees. Of course, nothing prohibits companies with less than 300 employees from entering into negotiations within the framework of a GPEC agreement.
GPEC: the different agreements
We can distinguish several types of GPEC agreements:
- GPEC agreements that do not contain future “threats” to jobs within the company;
- Mobility agreements, thus encouraging employees to move geographically with the aim of maintaining jobs or certain types of professions;
- GPEC agreements organizing a kind of restructuring, thus providing for job cuts (accompanied by training or requalification of the employees concerned).
A GPEC agreement should not only aim to manage staff, but should also support staff so that they can develop their skills.
Compensation scheme under a GPEC agreement
Before the law:
All indemnities paid to employees who leave the company under a GPEC agreement are exempt from social contributions and income tax.
After the 2011 social security finance law and the 2011 finance law:
From now on, the termination indemnities paid in the case of a voluntary departure following a GPEC agreement are:
- fully subject to income tax;
- fully subject to social security contributions;
- subject in full with a reduction of 1.75% (within the limit of 4 times the social security ceiling) to CSG and CRDS contributions.
As part of a GPEC agreement, severance pay is subject to the same regime as that applicable to compensation paid in the event of the voluntary departure of an employee on retirement.