The rules of the partial activity scheme

The partial activity scheme, commonly known as partial unemployment, is a scheme which allows the employer to:

• First possible measure: temporarily close all or part of your establishment
• Second possible measure: reduce the working hours practiced in the establishment or part of the establishment below the legal working time

In this situation, the employees will suffer a loss of remuneration, which will be compensated. It is this device which is intended to be in the context of the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.

Which employees are affected by the partial activity scheme?

Any employee bound to his employer by an employment contract, whatever the nature of the contract (CDI, CDD, etc.) or the employee's working time (full-time, part-time).

Exception: employees who fall under a fixed-day or fixed-hour scheme are excluded from the second measure of the partial activity scheme, insofar as they do not fall under collective working hours.

They can only benefit from the partial activity scheme in the context of a temporary closure of all or part of the establishment to which they are assigned.

Can only one employee be placed on partial activity?

The partial activity scheme is a collective measure which must target an establishment or part of an establishment, such as a service. The employer cannot therefore individually target a single employee.

However, it is possible to set up a rotation system on a service as follows:

• Collectively reduce the working time of a service and place employees individually and alternately in partial activity.

Compensation of the employee and coverage of the employer

• Compensation of the employee: for hours not worked, the employee receives from the employer, at the normal pay dates, an hourly allowance equal to 70% of his gross remuneration, reduced to an hourly amount based on the legal duration of work ;
• Coverage by the employer: for compensated unemployed hours, the employer benefits from partial coverage by the State and Unedic:
  • the amount of this payment is equal, as it stands, to 8.04 euros per compensable hour.

Concretely

The unemployed hours compensated are those which correspond to the difference between the legal working time (35 hours) and the hours actually worked by the employees.

What about employees on a daily package?

In this case, only the lost working days can be compensated. A day of closure is equivalent to 7 hours of work, a half-day to 3.5 hours. of 5 * 7 = 35 compensable hours.

How do you proceed to benefit from the partial activity scheme?

Two step :

• Request for authorization from the Direccte to use the partial activity system;
• Once this authorization has been obtained, the employer submits a request for compensation for partial activity.

First step: the request for authorization from the Direccte

First step: you must first justify your request by one of the following reasons:

• The economic context
• Supply difficulties
• A disaster or bad weather of an exceptional nature
• The transformation, restructuring or modernization of the company
• Any exceptional circumstances

In view of the declarations of the public authorities, the epidemic situation in the country caused by Covid-19 is an exceptional circumstance justifying the use of the partial activity scheme.

Second step: complete the following formalities:

• Prior consultation of the social and economic committee, when it exists;
• A request for prior authorization from the Direccte.

In principle, the request must be sent to the Direccte before the start of partial activity.
This request is made entirely electronically on the following site: https://activitepartielle.emploi.gouv.fr .
The request must specify:

• The reasons justifying the use of partial activity;
• The foreseeable period, which must be between one week and six months; – The number of employees concerned;
• If necessary, the prior opinion of the IRPs.

Direccte examination period: the request must be examined within 15 calendar days by the Direccte.
This period runs from the moment the application file is deemed complete. In the absence of a response within this period from the Direccte, the authorization request is deemed to have been accepted.

The second step: the employer's claim for compensation

Once authorized to use the partial activity scheme, the employer must send a dematerialized request for compensation on the aforementioned website.

The request must include information making it possible to identify the employer and the employees concerned (the identity of the employer, the list of names of the employees concerned and their registration number in the national directory for the identification of natural persons, and the nominative statements specifying in particular the number of hours off work per employee).

In principle, the employer is compensated monthly by the Service and Payment Agency (ASP).