French Labour Code
In forceWorkshops and integration projects, whatever their legal status, may conclude fixed-term contracts with unemployed people experiencing particular social and professional difficulties, in application of article L. 1242-3.
During the performance of these contracts, one or more agreements concluded pursuant to Article L. 5135-4 may provide for a period of work experience with another employer under the conditions set out in Chapter V of this Title.
The duration of these contracts may not be less than four months, except in the case of persons who have been convicted of a criminal offence and whose sentence has been adjusted.
These contracts may be renewed up to a maximum total duration of twenty-four months.
By way of derogation, these contracts may be renewed beyond the maximum duration provided for in order to enable the completion of a vocational training action in progress at the end of the contract. The duration of this renewal may not exceed the term of the action concerned.
By way of exception, this employment contract may be extended by a prescriber mentioned in article L. 5132-3 or, in the case of direct recruitment, by an integration workshop or site, beyond the maximum duration stipulated, after examining the employee's employment situation, the employer's ability to contribute and the support and training actions carried out within the framework of the initially stipulated duration of the contract:
a) When employees aged fifty and over or people recognised as disabled workers encounter particular difficulties which prevent their long-term integration into employment, whatever their legal status;
b) When employees encounter particularly significant difficulties, the absence of which would hinder their integration into employment, by successive decisions of one year at the most, up to a maximum of sixty months.
The weekly working time of an employee taken on under this scheme may not be less than twenty hours, except where the contract provides for this in order to take account of the particularly serious difficulties of the person concerned or in the event of combination with another part-time employment contract, in order to achieve an overall working time corresponding to full-time work or at least equal to the period mentioned in article L. 3123-27. It may vary over all or part of the period covered by the contract without exceeding the legal weekly working time. The periods worked are used to validate quarters of old age insurance contributions under the conditions of article L. 351-2 of the Social Security Code.
This contract may be suspended, at the request of the employee, in order to allow him/her to:
1° With the agreement of the employer, to complete a period of work experience in a professional environment under the conditions laid down in Chapter V of this Title or an action contributing to the employee's professional integration;
2° Complete a trial period in connection with a job offer for a permanent or fixed-term employment contract of at least six months.
In the event of recruitment at the end of this period of work experience, an action contributing to professional integration, or this trial period, the contract is terminated without notice.
A decree defines the conditions under which the derogation from the minimum weekly working time provided for in the ninth paragraph of this article may be granted.
By way of derogation from the provisions relating to early termination of fixed-term employment contracts set out in article L. 1243-2, the contract may be terminated early, at the employee's initiative, when the purpose of the termination is to enable the employee to follow a training course leading to a qualification as set out in article L. 6314-1.
