Caregiver leave, which has replaced family support leave since 1 st January 2017, allows employees, under certain conditions, to suspend their employment contract in order to be able to take care of a loved one with a disability or an elderly person with a loss of autonomy. Who can claim this caregiver leave and what is their status during this period? How long is this leave? What are the steps to obtain this leave? Our answers to your questions.
Caregiver leave has replaced family support leave since 1 st January 2017. It allows a person to temporarily cease their professional activity to devote their time to supporting either a disabled person or a person with a significant loss of autonomy. This accompaniment in the activities and acts of daily life must be carried out on a non-professional basis.
The employee has the possibility of taking this leave in the form of part-time work in his company. In this case, the employee alternates periods worked and periods of leave and must notify their employer at least 48 hours in advance of their wish to take part of this leave, which cannot be less than one day.
Caregiver leave concerns employees who have at least one year of seniority in their company. It can be taken out to accompany a person with a disability or loss of autonomy who lives as a couple with the employee, one of his parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, or one of his children, grand- children or great-grandchildren. The accompanied person can also be a brother, a sister, an aunt, an uncle, a first cousin, a nephew or a niece. It can also be an elderly or disabled person with whom the employee has a close relationship and to whom he provides regular assistance. The accompanied person can live at home, in a specialized institution or a retirement home.
In all cases, the accompanied person must reside in France in a stable and regular manner and have a permanent disability rate of at least 80%, if it is a disabled person, or receive the personalized allowance autonomy (Apa) for classification in groups I, II and III of the "Aggir grid", for people with loss of autonomy.
The duration of caregiver leave is limited in time. It can be fixed by a convention or a collective company agreement. In the absence of such a situation, the caregiver leave is three months. It can be renewed, but without being able to exceed the duration of one year over the entire career of the employee. The latter must inform his employer of his wish to renew his leave at least fifteen days before the end date of the leave initially planned.
The employee may waive or terminate early his caregiver leave in the event that the person accompanied dies or if he enters a specialized establishment; if the latter calls on a home help service to help him or if the employee suffers a significant loss of resources. In this case, the employee must send a reasoned request to his employer, at least one month before the date on which he intends to benefit from this early return, two weeks in the event of the death of the person assisted.
At the end of his caregiver leave, the employee returns to his job or a similar position with the same level of remuneration.
The employee is no longer paid by his employer during his caregiver leave, except for special provisions of agreements within the company. Nor can he exercise any other professional activity. He can nevertheless be employed by the accompanied person if the latter receives the personalized autonomy allowance (Apa) or the disability compensation benefit (PCH) and if he is not his spouse, his cohabitant or his partner of Pacs.
An employee on caregiver leave may also, under certain conditions, be employed or compensated by the person they are helping under their disability compensation benefit intended to cover the additional costs of any kind related to the disability and the loss of autonomy.
During his caregiver leave, the employee retains his rights related to his seniority in the company and all the advantages acquired before this leave. On the other hand, as a carer, the employee is entitled, without conditions of resources, to old-age insurance for stay-at-home parents (AVPF), which allows him to continue to accumulate his rights for retirement without needing contribute.
Since a law of February 2018, employees on caregiver leave can benefit from the donation of rest days from their work colleagues. On the other hand, if he benefits from a time savings account in his company, and with the agreement of his employer, the employee can use the rights he has accumulated on this account to have an income for all or part of his leave.
The request for caregiver leave must come from the employee and be brought to the attention of the employer at least one month before the planned date of departure, except in the event of an emergency related to the state of health of the person accompanied or again the abrupt cessation of accommodation in an establishment from which the person helped was benefiting.
This request must comply with the conditions and deadlines provided for by the convention or collective agreement of the employee's company. In the absence of such provisions, the employee sends his request to his employer by post or electronic mail by registered mail.
The request for caregiver leave must mention the start date of this leave and the terms of its organisation, i.e. whether he is taking this leave full-time or whether he wishes to convert it to part-time in his company.
The employee must accompany his request with the following documents:
If all the conditions are met, the employer cannot refuse a caregiver leave to an employee. Otherwise, the employee can challenge his refusal before the industrial tribunals. On the other hand, the employer can refuse the request for transformation of the care leave into a period of part-time activity or its splitting.
