During the confinement, many parents had to take care of their children, even participate in their education. The government then allowed them to take sick leave to devote themselves to this task full-time, which limited the impact on their remuneration, which was maintained at 90% of net salary.
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From May 11 and if nothing prevents deconfinement, the situation will change for parents. Indeed, nursery and elementary schools are supposed to reopen on this date.
What will happen from May 11 to the end of the month?
The reopening of schools announced by the government has aroused the concern of teacher unions but also of mayors: in Île-de-France, 332 mayors, including that of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, sent an open letter to the President of the Republic, requiring a postponement of the start of the school year. In Paris for example, only 10% of schoolchildren should be accommodated in this configuration in May, warned in the columns of Figaro Patrick Bloche, deputy mayor in charge of education.
For many parents, therefore, deconfinement will not mean that the children will go back to school. Since May 1, those who have to look after their children no longer benefit from sick leave as at the beginning of confinement, but from partial unemployment. The purpose of this transition was to prevent parents from suffering a reduction in their compensation, which is normally expected after 30 days of sick leave for employees with less than five years of seniority in their company. It is this partial unemployment system put in place on May 1 which will prevail after deconfinement: " therefore like other employees, [parents] are compensated up to 84% above the minimum wage and 100% for a minimum wage " , said the Minister of Labor Muriel Pénicaud, this Monday morning.
Please note, however: if the employer wishes to put an end to unemployment and recall his employee to his workplace, on which the health security measures requested by the authorities are well implemented, " " classic "labor law does not provide the custody problem as a reason for refusing to go to work, ”says Mathilde Hardy, lawyer and Cadremploi expert *. In these circumstances, it is up to the employee to find a means of childcare to return to work.
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The self-employed, that is to say the self-employed, civil servants and contract agents under public law may, for their part, continue to benefit from compensated work stoppages until the end of the state of emergency. health, set for July 24 in the government bill.
Even if the child's school reopened on May 11, the return to school will be “ on a voluntary basis ”: parents who wish to continue looking after their child at home even then that their school is open will therefore also be able to benefit from partial unemployment.
Hardening from June 2
As of June 2, more stringent rules are to be expected: parents will no longer be able to benefit from partial unemployment unless their child's school is closed and they have no daycare. , which they will have to demonstrate with a certificate in order to benefit from the device. Return to school will therefore no longer necessarily be on a voluntary basis and could become the norm.
In any case, this is the government's theoretical plan, in the event that the epidemic is under control, the schools reopened and the economy started up again. Muriel Pénicaud insists: the progress of the deconfinement will be examined closely, " every three weeks ". A rebound in the epidemic could for example reshuffle the cards. All of this child care arrangements should therefore be reviewed in late May.
What if the parent is telecommuting?
Many parents have juggled since the beginning of the confinement between their professional activity in telework and the care of their children. For them, nothing changes from May 11 if they wish to continue in this configuration: they will be able to work " under the same conditions as at present, with the flexibility expected from employers, " explains Mathilde Hardy.
The employer cannot criticize the employee for keeping his children in parallel with his professional activity. Since the start of the crisis, the Minister of Labor has called on businesses to be understanding. This will still apply after May 11 since telework " must remain the standard for all activities that allow it for the next few weeks, " the ministry said in a statement.
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Parents then receive their normal salary and can also send their children to school on a voluntary basis. Here again, we will have to be attentive to the government's announcements at the beginning of June in order to know whether this principle will still prevail.
* Brand of the Figaro group.
