Football bosses lay “an important first stone” for the future of professional players in the French Championships.
This Friday morning, the Foot Unis organization, chaired by Laurent Nicollin (Montpellier), adopted an unprecedented employer recommendation to grant new rights to players who want a child during their career.
A “unilateral approach” from D1 and D2 clubs which will at least be at the heart of the future collective agreement (still under discussion) of the Women’s Professional Football League (LFFP), led by Jean-Michel Aulas from July 1.
Concretely, Foot Unis adopts three main areas of protection for its sports employees.
The first will concern total salary maintenance for 90 days for any work stoppage, without deficiency or seniority condition.
A point that allows players to approach the start of a pregnancy.
Up to 4 times the ceiling for social security benefits
The second is the clubs' commitment to supplement up to 4 times the ceiling for social security benefits during the 16 weeks of legal maternity leave, as well as over the three months following pregnancy.
A sum which can therefore go up to around 13,000 euros gross per month, which far exceeds the average salary of professional players (between 2,500 and 3,000 euros per month).
Finally, the third point adopted by Foot Unis is “generalized subrogation”.
To summarize: employers will replace social security and will themselves seek reimbursement from the social organization.
“It seemed essential to us that the players benefit from guarantees,” we explain to Foot Unis.
For a maximum of nine months, they will be able to receive a full salary then up to 4 times the social security benefits.
This is a positive step on our part, which does not replace the social dialogue still underway for the collective agreement.
This is a first step towards ensuring these rights.
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For months, Foot Unis, the French Football Federation (FFF) and the UNFP, the professional players' union, have also been discussing the contours of the future LFFP collective agreement.
All the players hope to sign it for July 1, the launch date of the new Professional League, within the FFF, which will supervise the development of the French professional Championships (D1 and D2).