Employment law
Technical unemployment (short-time working)
Three months, no more, and beyond that, any termination is attributable to the employer.
A major breakdown, a prolonged power cut, a disaster, bad weather: activity stops and the company can no longer provide work. The Labour Code organises this situation under the name technical unemployment, which collectively suspends the employment contract without ending it.
It is a useful tool, but bounded in time and framed in its procedure. And it carries a deadline that must be borne in mind from day one: beyond three months, any termination of the contract is attributable to the employer. Labour Code, Article L.35 (French).
1. What is technical unemployment?
The Code defines it as a collective interruption of work resulting from accidental causes: damage to equipment, interruption of motive power, disasters, bad weather.
Two words deserve attention. Collective: technical unemployment concerns all or part of the workforce; it is not decided worker by worker. Accidental: these are events suffered, external to day-to-day management. A foreseeable downturn or a thinning order book is an economic cause, not a technical one, even though the suspension regime is close.
| Cause | Examples | Nature |
|---|---|---|
| Technical | Major breakdown, loss of motive power, fire, flood, bad weather | An accidental event suffered |
| Economic | Lasting downturn, loss of a contract, financial difficulties | The company's situation |
2. The prior procedure
Placing staff on short time is not a purely internal decision. Two formalities precede it:
- seek the opinion of the staff delegates or the union committee;
- inform the Regional Director of Labour beforehand.
"Beforehand" is to be read literally: the information precedes the measure, it does not follow it. A decision applied and then notified does not satisfy Article L.35.
For protected employees, staff delegates and union officers, prior authorisation from the labour inspector is required before any placement on technical unemployment. This is a distinct protection, additional to the collective consultation.
3. The three months, and what follows
The suspension may not exceed three months. The Code draws two consequences from that ceiling, and they are symmetrical:
| Situation | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Beyond three months of suspension | Any termination of the contract is attributable to the employer |
| The employee does not accept the proposed suspension terms | Any termination of the contract is attributable to the employer |
"Attributable to the employer" is not a neutral phrase: the termination is then treated as a dismissal, with the compensation that entails. Technical unemployment therefore cannot serve as an indefinite holding solution; it opens a three-month window during which a decision must be prepared.
That period should be read as a countdown: from the moment staff are placed on short time, work on the exit must run in parallel, resumption, reorganisation, or a redundancy procedure where appropriate.
4. What the employer cannot do during the period
Two prohibitions follow logically from the nature of the measure. If the company cannot provide work, it also cannot:
- hire new workers;
- have overtime worked.
These prohibitions apply only to the sectors affected by the interruption: an unaffected activity continues normally. But within the scope concerned, hiring or working overtime directly contradicts the ground relied on, and undermines the whole measure.
5. Who cannot be placed on technical unemployment?
Some situations block the measure, because the contract is already suspended on another protective ground:
- women on maternity leave;
- employees absent following a workplace accident or an occupational disease.
Moreover, an employee cannot refuse the principle of technical unemployment, which is a collective measure. What they may refuse are the proposed suspension terms, and that refusal shifts responsibility for any termination onto the employer.
6. What effects on the employee's rights?
Suspension does not erase the past: periods of technical unemployment count towards seniority-based rights. The employee returns to their post on resumption, with seniority intact.
On pay, the Code sets no compensation scale: it refers to the suspension terms proposed by the employer, which the employee accepts or refuses. Those terms are therefore the heart of the arrangement, and they must be assessed against the applicable collective or establishment agreement, which may provide for full or partial maintenance of pay.
7. Technical unemployment and redundancy
The two measures are distinct but connected. Dismissal on economic grounds covers any dismissal, individual or collective, made for reasons not inherent to the person of the employee: economic difficulties, technological change, reorganisation, cessation of activity.
Where suspension has not restored activity, the redundancy procedure takes over, with its own requirements:
| Step | Content |
|---|---|
| Order of dismissals | Established by occupational aptitude, seniority and family responsibilities |
| Consultation | The staff representatives are consulted |
| Meeting | Each employee concerned is summoned to a prior meeting |
| Accompanying measures | Seeking job-preservation solutions where possible |
| Notification | The labour inspector is informed |
In a dispute, the burden of proving the economic ground and compliance with the order of dismissals lies with the employer. Labour Code, Articles L.46 and L.48 (French).
Key takeaways
| The rule | What it implies |
|---|---|
| A collective interruption, of accidental cause | Breakdown, motive power, disaster, bad weather |
| Delegates' opinion and prior notice to the Regional Director | Before the measure, not after |
| Inspector's authorisation for protected employees | A protection distinct from collective consultation |
| Three months maximum | Beyond that, termination is attributable to the employer |
| No hiring or overtime in the affected sectors | The measure must stay consistent with its ground |
| Seniority is preserved | The period counts towards the rights that depend on it |