How does sick leave work in France?

Most of the time, getting a doctor’s note can be quite simple: it implies making an appointment with a doctor or midwife, who are qualified to give a Crêt the handkerchief (License for sanctioned illness).

If you consider it sick enough to guarantee free time at work or school, then the doctor or midwife will give you a Malote Arrêthat is a particular guy or Crêt the handkerchief Supported by a Medical certificate.

Informing an absence of disease in France

First, tell your employer that you cannot work, you are sick as soon as possible, either verbally or in writing (email is fine in most cases), and usual within 48 hours.

Then you need to obtain a medical certificate (known as a Av d’a rimêt de travail), Issued and signed by a doctor, to justify his absence. Keep in mind that there is no self -orthification system in France.

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The form comes in triplicate. You send the first two to your local offices of Caisse Primaire D’Assurance Malieie (CPAM), and the third to your employer.

It is increasingly common for doctors to present the arrival Online. In which case, the CPAM bit is done automatically. Your doctor will have given you part 3, which you need to send to your employer.

The sick note confirms the license dates and if the absence is due to a disease or a work-related problem. The process for legal illness also began, we went into more details about that later.

Te -Consultation

If your illness license was prescribed or renewed from a turbulence Te -Consultation (Online appointment), you cannot normally exceed three days. If so, you may not be entitled to a payment for legal illness.

Can I extend the disease license?

Before the end of your arrivalYou must make another appointment with the doctor who prescribed his initial arrival or with your header (Medical Traiter) If you need an extension.

Can I leave home when I am sick?

That depends on your doctor, who can indicate in your disease license notice if you are authorized to leave your home duration of your illness license. Your doctor can even limit the times it is allowed outside.

The staff of your primary health insurance fund can verify that you are at home during your disease period, including Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

Also keep in mind that employers have the right to demand a second medical opinion of an independent doctor, who can shorten or cancel the disease note period.

What about the holidays?

If you plan to reside temporarily in another duration of the duration of the address, you must indicate this in section 1 of the DISEASE License notice provider for your doctor and now to your health insurance fund. If your doctor sends sections 1 and 2 of your online illness license notice, ask them to indicate this.

This is the address in which the primary health insurance fund can visit it if necessary. Regardless of where you live, you should be able to undergo these checks.

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Traveling abroad can interrupt your daily assignment payments. The payment of your daily assignment depends on the country to which you are traveling and may require prior authorization of your health insurance fund.

What they pay you

Depending on the reason why it is absent from work and its professional status, the benefits may differ. But the daily assignment is typically 50 percent of a reference salary set.

Since April 1, the gross reference salary has been limited to 1.4 times the minimum wage, which means that legal patient cannot exceed € 41.47 per day before taxes. Before April 1, the roof was € 53.31.

The complementary contributions of employers and mutual insurance companies will increase accordingly to “guarantee employees at least 90 percent of their compensation,” said the Ministry of Employment. Most companies already cover 10 percent of removing, as well as the period of four days before the legal illness payment rules are activated.

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Pension plans will have to increase their contributions to account for this new burden. The increase in the expected contribution is estimated at 2 percent on average by professionals in the sector, Altheghiegh there are significant variations that depend on the sector.

Employees without a complementary scheme-workers, seasonal workers, employees of private employers and employees in short-term contracts of fixed term will have the reduction of the compensation alone.

The daily assignments for occupational diseases and accidents, which are calculated differently, remain at previous levels.

Payments begin on the fourth day of illness. After processing the file, you must receive a payment every 14 days on average that covers the duration of your arrival. Processing times depend on the primary health insurance fund and reimbursement states can be seen in their Ameli account.

Since March 1, 2025, the daily assignments for civil service personnel have been compensated in 90 percent of their salary duration for the first three months of their job stop, compared to 100 percent prior, except for local authenticators and family assistants employees employees employees employees employed employees.

When the exeds illness license three months, that daily assignment can be reassess. The payment for illness can continue for up to three years, if the condition of an employee deserves it.

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But I am autonomous / unemployed

You still have the right to a legal illness if you work on your own, and the system is generally the same. However, unless you have organized coverage in private, it will only be paid at the current rate.

The same is true if it is unemployed. If you recite the benefits, send the following support documents to your primary health insurance fund, together with Parts 1 and 2 of the arrival Of your doctor:

• Your last 3 payment leaps before employment use, or 4 if the last month is incomplete (if you have a seasonal or discontinuous activity, send your payment slippers during the last 12 months).

If you do not receive unmployed benefits, send the following support documents:

• Your last 3 payment leaps before employment, or 4 if the last month is incomplete (if you have a seasonal or discontinuous activity, send your payment slippers during the last 12 months);
• A affidavit in which the date of cessation of its salaried activity is specified.

While he is sick, he is not considered to look for work and will not receive unmployed benefits, but remember the benefits of disease. This may seem bkew, but has hit the effects in the period in which it can claim particular benefits, since we explain a little later.

Taxes

Remember, the daily assignments for illness payment are part of the income you must declare to the tax authorities. To complete your tax declaration, you must download your daily assignment payment certificate from your Ameli account.

Can I return to work while in a Crêt the handkerchief?

Official, you are not allowed to return to work until the end of your ârretAlthehoth, actually, workers, eager to return to the full salary, probably do. The law establishes that it must refrain from any activity not authorized by your doctor for the specific amount of time in the Crêt the handkerchief.

This also includes working from home, according to the French government. Then, the best advice is to see your doctor and request that you present the end date of your arrival.

If you work during the days when you are sick of being sick, you are likely to be asked to pay CPAM for any legal illness that was provid.

An employer who tries to force his employee to return before the end of his Crêt the handkerchief It can be convicted or work not declared.

What happens when I return to work?

After the last day of your arrivalIt is expected to work as normal. Their illness payments will stop and receive their salary as usual, except any day that was out of work.

If it is unemployed, it is reinstated in France Travail (previously Pôle Emploi) and begins to receive its benefits again.

Its period of inemplexed benefit will be extended for the number of days that were compensated by health insurance for the disease.

This means that if you have resorted to the daily health insurance benefits for 10 days, you will receive its benefits inemplar by a 10 -day addition compared to the final date of the rights that were notified.