Do you receive additional paid leave following a family death in France?
Additional ‘bereavement’ leave is available in some cases
Marriages, deaths, and births can all be covered by additional leave
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock
Reader Question: I am an American who works in France but my family lives in the US. Recently my mother died and I went back to attend the funeral, taking holiday days to do so. Do these come out of my paid leave, or do I benefit from extra leave related to this?
Additional days of paid leave can be taken by workers in the French private sector following a death in the family or other major family event.
These days of leave are paid as if you worked on the given day, and do not come from your pool of paid holiday leave (usually 25 days for a full-time, 35-hour per week employee in France).
The amounts vary depending on the family event.
A non-exhaustive list includes:
Marriage or Pacs: four days of leave
Birth of a child or adoption of a child: three days (in the event of a birth, can be taken from the day of birth, and does not count towards parental leave)
Marriage of a child: one day
Death of a child: 12 days, 14 if the child is under 25
Death of a spouse, close family member, or close family member of your spouse: three days
Announcement of a child’s disability or serious injury: five days
In these circumstances, your employer has the right to ask for proof (death certificate, marriage certificate, doctor’s note, etc) of the event, which you must provide.
However, French labour laws do not require this to be given in a specific way, being up to the discretion of the employee how to provide this.
The leave must be taken around the time of the event, but not necessarily on the day the event took place, such as a wedding day or date of death of a family member.
In your case, the death of the family member being outside of France does not impact your request. However, you are not granted additional days of leave because it happened overseas and you had to travel further.
Leave for family events may be extended for some workers, depending on collective agreements between employers and worker representatives/unions.
Check with your representatives to see if you benefit from increased leave.
Rules for workers in the French public sector are also different.
In addition to the leave mentioned above, bereavement leave (congé de deuil) is possible for the death of a child under 25, amounting to eight additional days, which can be taken in two separate periods if you wish.
This congé de deuil is not granted for any other family deaths.
Read more: Understanding paid holidays and leave rules in France
