SYNTEC collective agreements – Extension of the amendment concluded on April 1, 2014 on working hours

By order of June 26, 2014, it was extended to all companies covered by the so-called SYNTEC collective agreement of December 15, 1987 (IDCC no. 1486], the amendment concluded on April 1, 2014, amending article 4 of chapter 2 of the national agreement of 22 June 1999 on working hours in the SYNTEC branch.

It should be recalled that the provisions of the said article had been invalidated by the decision of the Court of Cassation of April 24, 2013 (n° 11-28398 FS-PB) , these not ensuring the protection of the security and the employee's health with regard to working hours. Following this decision, any individual flat-rate agreement signed between the employer and an employee in application of this national agreement was considered void.

The social partners have therefore negotiated new provisions taking into account the criteria to be fulfilled by the contractual provisions for them to be valid, under the terms of the amendment of 1 April 2014. Article 4.2 is extended, subject to compliance the case law of the Court of Cassation (Cass. soc, January 31, 2012, No. 10-17593) , which specifies

that an individual agreement for a flat rate in days over the year must set the number of days worked and specify the procedures for counting the days or half-days worked and the taking of days or half-days of rest, and consequently that a simple reference by the employment contract to the provisions of the collective agreement or the company agreement providing for the fixed working day is insufficient.

The first paragraph of Chapter 2 is extended, provided that under the provisions of Article L. 3121-39 of the Labor Code , the agreement does not preclude what may be determined by a company agreement or establishment the main characteristics of individual flat-rate agreements, since they guarantee the protection of the safety and health of employees, in accordance with the case law of the Court of Cassation ( Cass. soc, May 14, 2014, n ° 12-35033 ).

This amendment was initially only applicable to companies attached to the federations that were signatories. It has become applicable to all companies in the branch from the date of publication of this decree for the remaining period and under the conditions provided for by said amendment. From now on, the individual flat rate agreements concluded between the employees and their employer from this date in application of the new provisions of the so-called Syntec collective agreement, are valid.