Christmas Leave: What Employers Need to Know to Manage the Year-End Holidays

25 December is what is known as an “ordinary” public holiday: unless a collective agreement or a more favourable custom provides otherwise, you are not required to close on that day or to pay employees more. No statute imposes a specific “Christmas leave”: year-end rest derives either from public holidays (Article L.3133-1 of the French Labour Code) or from paid leave requested by the employee or imposed by you in the context of a company closure. This article sets out the legal and operational framework for managing this period without litigation risk.

25 December: a Public Holiday, but Not Necessarily a Day Off

Christmas Day appears in the list of eleven statutory public holidays set by Article L.3133-1 of the French Labour Code. Contrary to a widespread belief, only 1 May must compulsorily be a paid day off. For all other public holidays, including 25 December, closure is not automatic: it depends on your collective bargaining agreement, a company-level agreement or a custom.

In practice, two situations arise:

• Your collective agreement or a custom provides that 25 December is a day off: the employee does not work and retains their remuneration, subject to the conditions set by Article L.3133-3 (the closure of a public holiday cannot result in a loss of pay for employees with at least three months’ seniority).
• No provision requires closure: you may ask the employee to work on 25 December. In that case, no statutory premium is due, unless a more favourable collective provision applies.

Alsace-Moselle point of attention: in the departments of Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin and Moselle, both 25 December AND 26 December (Saint Stephen’s Day) are public holidays that must compulsorily be days off under local law (Articles L.3134-1 et seq. of the French Labour Code). If your company employs staff in these territories, you must strictly comply with this regime, including for secondary establishments.

Company Closure Between Christmas and New Year’s Day

Many mid-sized companies choose to close between 25 December and 1 January. This closure is not a “gifted holiday”: it is charged against employees’ paid leave.

Two ways of implementing it:

1. Closure imposed by the employer. You may set the dates on which leave is taken and impose a closure, complying with the applicable statutory rules: consultation of the social and economic committee (comité social et économique, CSE) and, in the absence of a collective agreement, compliance with notice periods. The leave period must be communicated at least one month before departure, save in exceptional circumstances.

2. Leave taken at the employee’s initiative. You retain the power to accept or refuse requests based on operational requirements, while respecting equal treatment.

Beware of splitting (fractionnement). When you impose the taking of leave outside the statutory period (1 May – 31 October), the employee may become entitled to additional leave days for splitting (jours de fractionnement), unless a waiver is provided for by agreement or by the collective bargaining agreement. An employee to whom you impose five days in December may thus acquire one to two additional days. Anticipate this cost by securing a waiver clause in your company agreement.

Employees With Insufficient Leave Balance

What should you do if an employee does not have enough accrued days to cover the closure? You cannot compel them to take leave they have not accrued. Several options are available to you:

• Taking leave in advance, with the employee’s agreement.
• Recourse to short-time working (activité partielle), if the statutory conditions are met and after applying to the administration.
• Unpaid leave (congé sans solde): the employee is then not paid for the days not covered. This period suspends the contract but generates neither salary nor contributions, which affects the payslip.

Payroll management of these situations is a technical point: the treatment of days not worked, the interaction with public holidays included in the period, and the calculation of paid-leave allowances must be mastered to avoid any URSSAF reassessment or employee claim.

Working on 25 December and Compensatory Rest

If your business requires continuity (healthcare, hospitality and catering, retail, process industry), working on 25 December is possible, except for young workers under 18, whose employment on public holidays is in principle prohibited (Article L.3164-6 of the French Labour Code), subject to sector-specific exemptions.

Systematically check:

• what your collective bargaining agreement provides regarding premiums or compensatory rest for working on a public holiday;
• compliance with the weekly rest of 24 consecutive hours, to which the daily rest of 11 hours is added;
• the possible existence of a company agreement setting compensation.

In the absence of a collective provision, no premium is legally mandatory for working on an ordinary public holiday — but practice and employer attractiveness often justify a negotiated compensation.

Christmas Bonus and Gifts: the Social Security Regime

Gifts and vouchers given to employees by the CSE — or by you in the absence of a CSE — benefit from an URSSAF tolerance: below an annual ceiling per employee and per event (Christmas being an eligible event), they are exempt from social security contributions. Beyond that threshold, they constitute a benefit subject to contributions.

The year-end bonus, by contrast, is an element of remuneration: it is fully subject to social security contributions and must appear on the payslip. If it results from a custom, its removal requires a formalised denunciation procedure (individual notification of employees, information of the CSE, compliance with a sufficient notice period). DAIRIA Avocats secures these custom denunciations, a frequent source of labour court litigation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are we required to grant 25 December as a day off?

No, except in Alsace-Moselle where local law requires it. Elsewhere, closure on 25 December depends on your collective agreement, a company agreement or a custom. Failing that, you may ask the employee to work, with no mandatory statutory premium (Article L.3133-3 of the French Labour Code).

Can we require employees to take leave during the Christmas closure?

Yes. You may set a closure period and impose the taking of paid leave, provided you consult the CSE and comply with notice periods. Allow at least one month’s notice before the effective departure.

Does the year-end closure give rise to splitting days?

Yes, potentially. Leave imposed outside the 1 May to 31 October period may generate additional splitting days, unless a waiver is provided for by a collective agreement or by the collective bargaining agreement. A well-drafted waiver clause neutralises this cost.

Must an employee without sufficient leave be paid during the closure?

Not automatically. If they have not accrued enough days, you may use early leave with their agreement, short-time working if the conditions are met, or unpaid leave. In the latter case, the days not covered are neither paid nor subject to contributions.

Are Christmas gifts and vouchers subject to contributions?

Below the annual ceiling tolerated by URSSAF, vouchers and gifts linked to the Christmas event are exempt from social security contributions. Beyond that threshold, they become a benefit subject to contributions and must be processed in payroll.

Secure Your Year-End Management

The Christmas period concentrates several risks: challenges to imposed leave, unanticipated splitting days, payroll errors on public holidays, the social security regime for bonuses and gifts, and Alsace-Moselle specificities. DAIRIA Avocats supports HR directors and executives of mid-sized companies in drafting closure agreements, securing splitting-waiver clauses, denouncing customs, and auditing payroll for public holidays. We intervene upstream to avoid litigation and to guarantee you provable compliance. Contact us to prepare your year-end holidays with peace of mind.