French Labour Law

Paid Leave and Sick Leave: What the April 22, 2024 Law Changes for Your Business

DAIRIA Law · 2026-06-30 · 5 min

Paid Leave and Sick Leave: What the April 22, 2024 Law Changes for Your Business

Law No. 2024-364 of April 22, 2024, has addressed an anomaly in French law by aligning our legislation with European case law. From now on, an employee on sick leave continues to accrue paid leave, even when the leave is not work-related. For employers, this reform implies concrete changes in the management of leave balances, employee information, and retroactive claims.

What the Law States: The New Principle of Accrual

Before this law, only work-related sick leaves (occupational accidents, occupational illnesses) granted the right to accrue paid leave, limited to one year. Sick leaves due to ordinary illness did not confer any rights. This distinction has been deemed contrary to European Directive 2003/88/EC by the Court of Justice of the European Union, and subsequently by the French Court of Cassation in its rulings on September 13, 2023.

The April 22, 2024 law establishes a dual accrual system:

For non-work-related sick leave: the employee accrues 2 working days of paid leave per month of absence, totaling 24 working days per year (4 weeks). This is less than the typical 2.5 days (30 working days, or 5 weeks) accrued during actual working periods.

For work-related sick leave: the employee accrues 2.5 working days per month without any duration limitation (the one-year limit has been removed). Thus, they accrue the same rights as if they were working.

The Retroactive Effect: How to Manage It?

The most delicate point of this reform is its retroactive application. The law provides that employees can claim unpaid paid leave for periods of sick leave dating back to December 1, 2009. However, this right is constrained by a limitation period of two years from the law’s entry into force, until April 23, 2026.

In practice, your current and former employees have until April 23, 2026, to claim unpaid paid leave for past sick leaves. After this date, the right is barred.

Numerical Example

An employee was on ordinary sick leave for 8 months in 2022. Under the old regime, they accrued no paid leave during this period. With retroactivity, they can claim 8 x 2 = 16 working days of paid leave. If they are still employed, these days are added to their balance. If they left the company, they can request a compensatory indemnity.

The Employer’s Obligation to Inform Employees

The law imposes a strengthened obligation to inform employees on the employer. Within one month of the employee’s return after sick leave, you must inform them by any means that provides a certain date:

– The number of leave days available to them;

– The deadline by which these leave days must be taken;

– This deadline for taking leave is 15 months from the date of notification.

Failure to provide this information means the leave carryover period does not start. The employee retains the benefit of these days indefinitely, potentially resulting in problematic accumulation. Implement a template letter or automatic email for returning from sick leave.

Carryover of Leave: A New 15-Month Deadline

When an employee cannot take their paid leave due to sick leave, these leaves are carried over. The law sets a 15-month carryover period from the date the employee is informed of their rights. This period replaces the previous case-law rules that could lead to unlimited carryover.

If the sick leave lasts more than one year, the 15-month carryover period begins at the end of the accrual period during which the leave was accumulated. For example, for leave accrued between June 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026, the carryover expires on August 31, 2027 (15 months after May 31, 2026), provided the employee has been informed.

Financial Impact for the Employer: How to Provision?

This reform has a real cost for employers, especially due to retroactivity. Provisioning must take into account several parameters:

For current employees: Identify all sick leaves since December 1, 2009, and calculate the leave days theoretically accrued. Multiply by the current daily rate for the employee. This is your maximum exposure.

For former employees: The risk pertains to compensatory indemnities for paid leave. This is harder to quantify as it depends on the number of former employees who will make a claim before April 23, 2026.

In practice, not all companies will be exposed in the same way. Sectors with high absenteeism rates (industry, healthcare, retail) will be disproportionately impacted compared to tertiary sectors with few long-term leaves.

5 Concrete Actions to Ensure Compliance

1. Update your payroll software to integrate the new accrual rules (2 days/month for ordinary illness, 2.5 days/month for occupational accidents/illnesses without duration limit).

2. Create an information template letter to send to the employee within one month of their return from sick leave. This letter must specify the number of days accrued and the deadline for taking them.

3. Audit your leave balances to identify employees who have had sick leaves since 2009 and calculate their potential retroactive rights.

4. Provision for the cost in your accounts, distinguishing the certain cost (current employees) from the potential cost (former employees).

5. Inform your managers about the new rules so they can plan the return-to-work leaves without disrupting teams.

DAIRIA’s Advice: The date of April 23, 2026, is a crucial deadline for retroactivity. Review your workforce now. DAIRIA can help you identify the affected employees, calculate the due days, and generate the compliant information letters.

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