Changes as of January 1, 2010

Smic, social security ceilingé social benefits, new legal obligationsé Overview of the main measures à social character that apply à from January 1st.

Smic and salary for civil servants

The salaire interprofessionnel minimum de croissance is revaluedé by 0.5% and therefore raisedé à 8.86 euros per hour on January 1, 2010. For an employee working 35 hours a week, the monthly salary is now 1,343.77 euros.
On the other hand, the guaranteed minimum wage remains fixed at é 3.31 euros. S’agissant de la Fonction publique, le point d’indice ne sera pas revalorisationé au 1er janvier 2010, le traitement minimum des fonctionnaires étant supérieureur au smic, puisqu'il s’établit depuis le 1er octobre 2009 à 1 345,32 euros.

Social contributions

• Social security ceiling. The ceiling applicable to earnings and rémunérations toés in 2010 is seté à 2,885 euros per month.

• Forfait social. This employer's contribution due on éréments excluded from the base of sécurité social security contributions, but subject à to CSG and à the CRDS, such as the épargne salariale, is increased from 2% à 4% as of January 1, 2010, pursuant to the French Social Security Financing Act for 2010.

• Titres restaurant. Pursuant to the 2010 Finance Act (à paraître), the employer's contribution to the financing of meal vouchers bénéficie d’une exonération fiscale et sociale dans une limite qui devrait être fixée à 5,21 euros par titre à compter du 1er janvier.

Contrat unique d’insertion, aides à l’embauche, CTP

On January 1, 2010, the contrat unique d’insertion (CUI) comes into force. Created é by the law on the revenu de solidarité active, the CUI comes in two versions: the contrat initiative-emploi (CIE) in the market sector and the contrat d’accompagnement dans l’emploi (CAE) in the non-market sector. These contracts replace the CI-RMA and CAV contracts.
À As of January 1, it will therefore no longer be possible to conclude the latter. However, contracts concluded prior to January 1, 2010 will continue unchanged until their échéance.
In the context of the crisis, the exceptional à hiring assistance grantedéto companies with fewer than 10 employeeséhas been extendedébeyondédécember 31, 2009 for hires madeéaliséuntil June 30, 2010.

The experimentéof the CTP (contrat de transition professionnelle), intendedé à to facilitate the reclassification of redundant économic workers, has been extendedéby one year. The scheme therefore applies in companies with fewer than 1,000 employeesés to redundancies for économic reasons initiatedébefore December 1, 2010.

Partial unemployment

Since January 1, 2010, in application of the ANI of October 8, 2009, agréé par arrêté du 15 décembre, the basis for calculating the conventional part-time work allowance has been modifiedée.
It must nowébe calculatedéon the gross income used as a basis for calculating the allowance for paid leave, reducedéto à an hourly amount, on the basis of the statutory working time applicable in the company or, if lower, the collective working time or the time stipulated in the employment contract.

Seniors

Several provisions come into force on January 1.

• Employment of seniors. Companies with more than 50 employeeséthat are not covered by an agreement or have not élaboré an action plan to promote the employment of seniors are now liable for a pénalité of 1% of their payroll. However, the French Minister of Labor has announced that an additional three monthsélai will be grantedéto companies with 50 à 300 employeesés.

• Retirement à. Retirement à before age 65, à at the initiative of the employer, is no longer permittedée.

• Dispense de recherche d’emploi des chômeurs. L’âge de dispense de recherche d’emploi par les allocataires du régime d’assurance chômage est passé de 58 ans à 59 ans, et de 56,5 ans à 58 ans pour les bénéficiaires de l’ASS (allocation de solidarité spécifique).

Apprenticeship tax

The increased apprenticeship tax (à 0.6%) is abolished à effective January 1, 2009 and replaced ée by a « supplementary émentary » à apprenticeship égale à 0.1% of payroll.
This new contribution is payable by companies with 250 employeesés or more whose average number of employeesés on apprenticeship contracts or professionalization contracts, and young people on international corporate volunteering or bénéficiaires d’une convention industrielle de formation par la recherche, during the year of référence, is less than à 3% of the company’s average annual headcount.

Rescrits

À From January 1, 2010, the délai imparti à l’Urssaf, as part of the rescrit social (which concerns the conditions of application of législation relative aux cotisations), to process a complementary requestéposedéby an employer or independent worker, is reducedé from four à three months.
From the same date, the request for rescrit « aides à l’emploi », a procedure which été creéée by the law of August 4, 2008 de modernisation de l’économie, devrait êêtre, sous réserve de publication du décret afférent, ouverte à l'employeur qui entend bénéficier d’une aide à l'emploi.

Sources: liaisons sociales January 2010