The boost was expected by professionals in the catering, hotel industry, events and sports halls, who are facing an accumulation of paid leave of their employees on short-time working while their establishments are closed from made a pandemic.
The state will support ten days of leave per employee for the companies most affected by the health crisis, the Ministry of Labor announced on Wednesday evening.
The employees concerned will have to ask them between January 1 and January 20, 2021.
The aid, covered by the partial activity mechanism, will be subject to two criteria.
In the first case, it is aimed at businesses, including restaurants and sports halls, which have 140 days of closure over the whole of 2020. Also concerned, businesses, including hotels, which suffered a decrease in turnover of at least 90% over the periods covered by the state of health emergency.
“We asked for fifteen days of support.
We had ten, but it could have been zero.
It is therefore a positive step from the Minister of Labor, whom we thank, especially since it concerns cafes, bars and restaurants as well as the hotel and nightclub sector ”, commented the President of the UMIH, Thierry Grégoire.
A cost of 1.5 billion euros
Like him, and for several weeks, professionals in the sector have sounded the alarm.
For the latter, this accumulation of leave represented a threat to the future and the cash flow of these companies which will reopen, at best, on January 20.
And for good reason: employees put in "partial activity", to use the exact term, are entitled to paid leave at the rate of 2.5 days per month.
However, with this second confinement and the closure of establishments, the figures are dizzy: 16 million days of paid leave have not been taken since March, which represents a cost of 1.5 billion euros.
On the side of the Ministry of Labor, the amount of this new aid is estimated at "several hundred million euros".
