In most companies, paid leave must be taken by employees between 1 and 31 May of the following year. A decision that seems arbitrary. In the Journal du dimanche, which was wondering about such a provision, an Internet user, a labour controller, gave the answer.

This requires going back to the creation of paid holidays under the government of Léon Blum, in June 1936. At that time, two weeks of paid leave were given to French workers. The law is published in the Official Journal on June 26 and enters force in Paris the next day, says the JDD. The period is well chosen, to allow the French to take advantage of the summer period to relax.

Change of date under Vichy

"If we wanted employees to be able to have a complete leave from the summer of 36, it was therefore necessary that on that date they had a full year of work," writes the reader of the JDD. This law was amended under Vichy. At that time, "the starting point of the period taken into consideration for the assessment of entitlement to leave is set at 1 July of each year".



After the Second World War, the text was revised with the law of 29 April 1946. July 1 will be replaced by June 1. Since this period, employees have until May 31 to liquidate their paid leave for the past year.

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