What are the rights of a local elected employee who continues to work?

Who is involved?

Every employee who is a municipal, departmental or regional councilor has the right to receive training leave in the course of his or her mandate.

Demand

The local elected employee must request the leave from his employer by registered letter with notice of receipt (LRAR).

This letter should specify the following:

• Date and duration of the planned absence
• Organization responsible for training

The letter must reach the employer at least 30 days before the leave is taken.

Employer Response

If the employer does not respond within 15 days of the start of the training, the leave is considered granted.

If the training is provided by an organization approved by the Ministry of the Interior, the employee shall be granted training leave.

The employer may, however, refuse leave if it considers that the presence of the employee in the company is essential.

In the event of refusal of leave, the employer must inform the employee of the reasons for his decision.

In this case, the employee will be able to benefit from the leave in case of a new request 4 months after the refusal.

Remuneration

The local authority covers training, travel and subsistence expenses.

The community compensates for the loss of income during the leave.

The local elected employee must justify to his community, by any means, that he has suffered a reduction in his income as a result of the exercise of his right to training.

Duration

The duration of the training leave shall be 18 days for the duration of the term of office, regardless of the number of terms held by the elected official.

The leave shall be renewable in the event of re-election.

Who is involved?

Every elected member of a municipal, departmental or regional council has an individual right to training.

What's this about?

The training taken may be unrelated to the exercise of the mandate.

In particular, they enable the locally elected employee to acquire new skills with a view to returning to the company at the end of his term of office.

Duration of acquired rights

The individual right to training is fixed at 20 hours per year.

These hours shall be cumulated throughout the term of office.

Financing

The individual right to training is financed by a compulsory contribution levied on the official allowances received by the members of the council (municipal, departmental or regional). A national collecting agency collects the levy.

Its rate may not be less than 1%.

Demand

The request can be made by post or by email.

It must be accompanied by a copy of the training organization registration form.

The request must be sent to the manager of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations financing fund no later than 6 months after the end of the mandate.