Changing Times Bring Important Changes For Employers That Apply The Syntec CBA

• Published date: 08 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Contract of Employment, Employee Rights/ Labour Relations
• Law Firm: Seyfarth Shaw LLP
• Author: Mr Laurence D. Harvey Wood and Yana Komsitsky

The Syntec Federation, a national employer association in France for technology and consulting businesses, has signed four new collective agreements with the national trade unions. These agreements are in response to changing market conditions, including increased use of remote and "hybrid" working arrangements.

The Syntec Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA, formally known as the National Collective Agreement for Technical Consulting Firms, Engineering Consulting Firms and Consulting Companies) is the most widely applied collective agreement in France, governing relations between most technology multinationals and their French employees.

The Syntec Federation touts the changes agreed in December 2022 as mutually beneficial to the 80,000 companies and 1.2 million employees subject to the Syntec CBA. For employers, the following changes are worthy of note:

1. The scope for using the flexible "forfait jours" working time regime is extended. This regime provides maximum flexibility for employees classified as "autonomous executives". Instead of being subject to a fixed number of hours' work per week, they simply have an agreed number of days' work per year (218). The regime can only be used if there is both a collective agreement providing expressly for it and an individual written agreement with the employee.

The agreement signed in December 2022 provides that the regime can be used for a larger number of white collar (cadre) employees: it will be available for staff classified in position 2.3 under the Syntec classification system. Previously the regime could only be used for more highly classified employees.

Employers will welcome the extension of the regime to more employees for the flexibility it affords. However, it will remain important to check that the nature of the employee's duties genuinely justifies use of this type of working time regime; otherwise there is a risk of overtime claims (with possible liability for the offence of "concealed work").

2. One of the four agreements focuses on hybrid remote work. It contains a list of the subjects that must be covered if the employer signs a collective agreement or adopts a unilateral charter relating to remote work; and a template company-level agreement on remote work is appended to this new Syntec agreement.

There are certain improvements to individual rights for hybrid workers, including:

• an increase in the duration of mandatory daily breaks (from 20 to 45 minutes); and
• an express obligation, for...