To follow up on our previous memos, please find below information related to the following topics:
Evolution of the partial activity regime
Allowance for employees unable to work
Decree no. 2021-435 of April 13, 2021 increases the partial activity allowance for vulnerable persons or persons concerned with childcare who are unable to work.
The government wants to guarantee employers “zero remaining costs” if their employees have to be placed on partial work. The fact that the company belongs to a particular sector is irrelevant. The rates provided for as of April 1, 2021 are as follows:
Regarding the applicable conditions, two periods are to be distinguished:
Up to April 26, 2021:
Schools, leisure centers and nurseries are closed. Therefore, the employee can ask to benefit from partial activity if:
Partial activity is implemented if the employee:
The Ministry of Labour has specified in its Q&A on partial activity that the notion of inability to telework covers situations where teleworking “is not manageable with children at home“. Thus, “the employee is considered unable to telework if he or she occupies a non-teleworkable position or if the employer believes that the employee is unable to telework. In the latter case, the employee may, for example, state the number of dependent children, their ages, housing conditions, etc. ”
This requires a sworn statement from the employee indicating that he or she is the only one of the two parents requesting partial activity for childcare.
After April 26:
An employee who has to take care of his or her child can benefit from partial activity if he or she cannot telework:
Proof is required. The employee must also provide a sworn statementindicating that he or she is the only parent requesting a work stoppage.
General regime
Regarding the unprotected sectors:
Pursuant to Decree no. 2021-347 of March 30, 2021, which extended the scheme, the rates are as follows:
Please note that a draft decree would consider postponing the 36% rate reduction again until June 1, 2021. We will keep you informed when the decree is published.
Regarding protected and related sectors:
Pursuant to Decree no. 2021-348 of March 30, 2021, which extended the scheme, the rates are as follows:
For all intents and purposes, you will find on the website of the Ministry of Labor an explanatory sheet on the partial activity scheme detailing these different cases, summarized in the table below:
Update of the health and safety protocol in companies and action plan on telework
Update of the health and protocol
A new version of the company health protocol was published on April 8, 2021.
From now on, all companies must establish a telework action plan, whereas previously only companies located in departments with additional restrictions were concerned. The goal is to reduce to a minimum the time employees spend on site. The labor inspectorate will be able to control the effectiveness of this. If telework is to be systematically used, as long as it is compatible with the employee’s tasks, employees who wish to work on site are still allowed to do so, up to one day per week.
In order to help you to determine a suitable action plan, the Health Insurance website, ameli.fr, offers a questionnaire to be filled in by companies.
Helpful ressources
In addition, please find here the guide of the good practices of the employer which recalls the obligation of prevention of the employer with regard to its employees and any person brought to intervene in the company and its declensions. It is advisable to put in place various measures in order to evaluate the risk of contamination, in particular to update the single risk assessment document (DUER).
For your convenience, we are also providing you with several diagrams outlining the different procedures to follow in case of contamination within your company:
Certain limits to the measures that the employer can take are also recalled. Thus, it is not possible to:
Solidarity fund – March 2021
Decree no. 2021-422 of April 10, 2021 modifies the eligibility criteria for the solidarity fund for the month of March 2021.
In order to be eligible, it is now necessary to prove a starting date of activity on December 31, 2020 at the latest and no longer October 31, 2020. The aid must be requested by May 31, 2021 at the latest.
The companies which are eligible for the solidarity fund are:
For these last two categories:
Other companies with less than 50 employees can benefit from the extension of the financial aid of 1,500 euros for the month of March. The request must be made before April 30, 2021.
It is no longer possible to change the method of calculating the company’s reference turnover from one month to the next. The choice of the reference turnover is frozen according to the choice made by the companies for the compensation for the month of February 2021.
Financial aid for fixed costs of companies
We would like to remind you that the financial aid for fixed costs of companies, the details of which were communicated to you in our previous newsletter, is effective since March 31, 2021.
You will find on the dedicated page of the Ministry of Economy the practical sheet concerning the implementation of this scheme.
Financial aid for unsold goods
In order to help them compensate for the losses linked to their unsold stocks, the State is setting up an exceptional financial aid for companies in the clothing, footwear, leather goods and sports sectors.
This financial aid, intended for companies with less than 50 employees, will amount to 80% of the sum received under the solidarity fund for November 2020 (i.e. a maximum of 8,000 euros, the aid under the solidarity fund for the month of November being a maximum of 10,000 euros).
Postponement of social security contributions and payment plans
Extension of the exemption from contributions
The following may benefit from the exemption from social contributions:
The exemption from contribution applies to the periods of employment running until February 28, 2021 .
If the company is subject to closure to the public, the employer will benefit from the exemption until the last day of the month preceding the month of the authorization to receive the public.
The ceiling for the amount of the exemption has been raised to 1,800,000 euros, from 800,000 euros previously.
Deferral of social security contributions and payment plans
The deferral of social contributions of companies and self-employed workers has been extended for the month of April.
The contributions that will not be paid will be automatically postponed and the Urssaf will contact the employers in order to propose them a plan to settle their debts without penalty or increase of delay.
Employers with less than 250 employees as of January 1, 2020 who have entered into a settlement plan but are unable to meet all of the deadlines may also benefit from a partial remission of their contributions, if they:
The request must be made on the Urssaf website.
Aid for digitalization
The State announced in a press release dated April 12, 2021 the extension of the aid granted to VSEs for digitization costs until June 30, 2021.
In order to benefit from the aid, you must justify having incurred digitization expenses amounting to at least 450 euros between October 30, 2020 and June 30, 2021 via invoices and service contracts.
This aid, amounting to 500 euros, is extended to all companies with less than 11 employees, regardless of their sector of activity. All or part of the costs incurred for digitization will be supported when they relate to :
You can consult the eligibility conditions on the France Num website.