Security staff

Period of validity of the collective agreement

The collective agreement is valid from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2022 inclusive (Article 4).

Personal and material scope

Scope (Article 2)

The collective agreement applies to working employees who hold the following functions:

• administrative employees;
• security and surveillance officers such as static guards, patrol officers, control office operators, cash-in-transit transporters and store detectives;
• personal protection officers;
• cash-processing officers, inspectors.

Exception

Employees belonging to senior management, as referred to in Article 162-8(3) of the Labour Code. The list of senior management must be sent to the staff delegation annually.

Remuneration (Article 26)

Monthly remuneration consists of the basic salary determined in accordance with the annexed salary scale (Annex 1a).

• Each month, the employer pays the basic gross salary plus the statutory and contractual supplements for the preceding month.
• Hours exceeding the limits of the period (12 months), and the corresponding supplements, are paid in the month following the end of the period.
• The salary will be transferred to the employee’s bank account on a monthly basis at the latest on the 25^th day of each month. On the same date, employees will receive a detailed statement.

The monthly payslip contains:

• the statement defining the individual reference period; and
• the balance of hours worked with respect to the monthly average of 173 hours.

Adjustment of the scale to changes in the statutory minimum wage for unskilled workers

The adjustment of the scale provided for in the collective agreement to changes in the statutory minimum wage was agreed with effect from 1 January 2022, in order to keep pace with changes in the statutory minimum wage for unskilled workers.

Intermittent workers may not be paid below the basic starting salary. ‘Intermittent worker’ refers to any worker providing only occasional services, such as at fairs or exhibitions, or under other temporary service contracts.

Other remuneration items

Bonus (Article 27)

Management will pay a ‘13^th month’ bonus equal to the gross basic monthly salary at the end of the financial year. This 13^th-month bonus is paid together with the monthly salary at the end of the financial year.

• If the employee enters into service during the financial year, they will receive as many twelfths of the basic monthly salary as whole months worked since their entry into service.
• If the employee is dismissed during the year, except in the case of serious misconduct, they shall receive as many twelfths of the last basic monthly salary as whole months worked over the year at the time of departure. This does not apply in the event of termination of the contract by the employee or dismissal for serious misconduct.

Cash-in-transit (Annex 2)

A non-indexed premium of EUR 1 per hour actually worked in cash-in-transit is paid to staff assigned to cash-in-transit.

Service with a dog (Article 28)

• A non-indexed flat-rate premium, known as the ‘dog premium’, of EUR 10.00 per day of service (irrespective of the number of hours worked) and per guard dog is granted to ‘dog-handler’ officers when they have to carry out a service accompanied by their guard dog, duly ordered by the employer.
• The costs of vaccinating dogs used for services with dogs for security undertakings are reimbursed to dog handlers by the security undertaking upon presentation of a paid bill.

Wedding or PACS (civil partnership) gift (Article 29)

A single premium or an identical gift of EUR 75 is granted to a member of staff at the time of their marriage or declaration of civil partnership, in accordance with Article L. 233-16 of the Labour Code.

This premium cannot be cumulated and is paid for only one of the two events. An employee is entitled to this premium only once in their professional career.

Allowance for travel expenses (Article 36-4)

Where an employee uses their personal vehicle for actually carrying out their work (patrolling; work-related travel of store detectives in the performance of their duties; transport of documents, funds and persons; and, in general, any assignment at the behest of their employer requiring travel in the performance of the work, excluding any travel to or from one or more places of work, a travel allowance of EUR 0.25/km is granted. The employee will benefit from group material damage (‘Casco’) insurance for journeys for which the mileage allowance is paid.

Working time

Working hours (Article 19)

Principle

The normal daily working time is 8 hours per day.

However, employees may work beyond the limit laid down in the preceding subparagraph provided that the average weekly working time, calculated over the reference period, does not exceed 40 hours.

Derogation through a compensatory regime

The parties agree to distribute the working hours over a reference period of 12 months. Working time is distributed within the reference period by means of work organisation plans (hereinafter ‘work plans’), which in principle cover a period of 1 month.

Maximum working time

When drawing up the work plan, care must be taken to ensure that the following limits are not exceeded:

• Maximum 10 hours per day.
• Maximum 48 hours per period of 1 week from Monday to Sunday
• 192 hours per month.
• 2 076 hours in the reference period of 12 months.
  • A minimum working time of 4 hours per day (even if fewer hours are actually worked) is taken into account for calculating working time. However, this minimum time does not apply to staff working part-time or to security officers who are on call.
  • The reference period is individual and starts on the first day of the month following the date of hiring. For the period between hiring and the start of the individual period as defined above, the uniform regime provided for by the Law on working time applies.

Rest

• After each uninterrupted period of 7 consecutive calendar days of work, a 48-hour rest period is mandatory.
• Between each shift change, an employee is entitled to a minimum rest period of 11 hours.
• The number of work breaks in a day is limited to one, and may not exceed 2 hours, unless the employee agrees.
• The break between 2 days of work is at least 11 hours.

For and in a given annual period, any ‘bonus’ hours due to exceeding the monthly 173 hours in 1 or more previous months may not be absorbed to compensate for hours of absence due to inability to work (illness, work accident, etc.).

‘Bonus’ or ‘malus’ hours resulting from the aggregation of hours at the end of the annual period cannot give rise to a carry-over to the next annual period.

Overtime (Article 20)

Definition

Every hour exceeding the following limits is considered overtime:

• 10 hours per day.
• Maximum 48 hours per period of 1 week from Monday to Sunday.
• 192 hours per month.
• 2 076 hours in the reference period of 12 months.

Remuneration

Regarding payment, exceedances of the various limits cannot be cumulated, and one and the same hour simultaneously causing multiple limits to be exceeded is taken into account for payment only once.

Likewise, the same reasoning applies if the employee had to work a 12^th hour for a period from Monday to Sunday.

In the case of daily work beyond 12 hours (i.e. a 13^th hour, 14^th hour, etc.), or if the threshold in Article 20-1(a) is exceeded by more than 2 hours cumulatively over a period from Monday to Sunday, the remuneration or compensation for these one or more hours is set out in the table below:

Similarly, the remuneration or compensation for an employee’s overtime work for which one or more of the limits laid down in Article 20-1(b) and (c) are exceeded is shown in the table below:

Allowances for work on Sundays, statutory public holidays and at night

Combining supplements and increases (Article 24)

Supplements and increases are combined where applicable (night work, overtime, work on Sundays and public holidays).

Work plan, change of post and transfer, rest periods (Article 25)

Work plan

• A work plan is provided to the person, in principle, at least 10 days before it applies, provided that no statutory, regulatory or ministerial provision prohibits communication with a notice period of such length for security reasons and therefore restricts communication to a shorter period. If that is the case, the parties must comply with that provision and consider that period to be an automatic substitute for the period of 10 days set out above. The employer must first give the employee the opportunity to indicate their wishes regarding leave and must inform the employee of the balance (bonus/malus) of hours worked in accordance with Article 26-6;
• The work plan will in principle cover a period of 1 month. It must contain the following information:
  • The employee’s different working days.
  • The start and end time of each working day. For assignments for which the working time cannot be precisely determined, the end of work is indicated only on a provisional basis.
  • The working time of each working day. For days for which the assignments could not be determined, the working time is included in the work plan as an indication.
  • Rest days.
  • Days of leave.
• Staff assigned to services for which forecasts are difficult to draw up will be provided with a work plan covering in principle a minimum period of 15 calendar days. In this case, the work plan will include a minimum number of rest days to be agreed between the parties, without prejudice to Article 19-4:
• Any change to the work plan must take account of the maximum references not to be exceeded with respect to the limits of the values laid down in Article 19-2 and will, in principle, be made with the agreement of those concerned. However, where business needs so require (e.g. loss of contract or request for a change in the provision of services or the conditions thereof by the client, etc.), the employer may derogate from this principle. Changes to the work plan will in principle be in accordance with the order of priority laid down in Article 25-1(d) of the collective agreement.
• On request, the reasons for any change to the work plan must duly be given to the chair of the staff delegation or their representative. Periods of leave granted to employees may not be changed, except with the agreement of those concerned.
• Management will meet every 2 months with the staff representatives to discuss issues relating to changes in work plans.
• Management and employees emphasise their willingness to constructively address possible issues relating to changes in work plans.
• Any arrangements made between staff members must have management’s agreement. Any exceedances of the limits defined in Article 20.1 following such arrangements will not give rise to the payment of the corresponding supplements.

Change of post or internal transfer

For information purposes, the chair of the staff delegation must be informed of any change of post or internal transfer.

Unless this is impossible due to urgent circumstances beyond the undertaking’s control, this information must be provided in advance and in good time. Upon request, reasons for these changes of post and internal transfers will duly be given.

Rest periods

An employee whose daily working time exceeds 6 hours is entitled to an unpaid rest period as provided for in the Labour Code.

If, for reasons of service organisation or security, it is impossible to grant such unpaid rest, the employee is entitled to a ‘standby rest’ period, which is remunerated as working time and is of the same duration as the unpaid rest provided for in the Labour Code. During this ‘standby rest’ period, which allows the staff member to rest while not being absent from their post, without sleeping or avoiding service duties or internal rules, no specific activities are planned.

Leave entitlement

Paid annual leave (Article 30)

• The duration of the leave is at least 26 working days per year until the end of the second year following the date of hiring.
• From the third year of service, and for all employees hired before 1 October 2010, the duration of the leave is at least 27 working days per year.

Staff assigned to a post as jobholder will follow the client’s annual leave plan provided that it is compatible with that of their employer. The employer must inform the employee at least 1 month before granting this part of the leave.
Leave allowance is calculated in accordance with Articles 30.2 and 30.3 of the collective agreement.

Priority in the choice of leave periods is based on service needs, the employee’s family situation (e.g. children’s schooling) and length of service with the undertaking.

Requesting leave

Any request for leave submitted in writing must be against a receipt signed by the line manager at the time of submission.

Paid leave will be granted on the basis of 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week (i.e. 7 consecutive days), provided that the request for leave has been submitted in the manner provided for in the collective agreement no later than 5 working days before the 15^th day of the month preceding the month to which the leave applies.

If the request for leave is received by the employer only after the deadline mentioned above (5 working days in advance), the leave will be counted in accordance with the daily and weekly working hours provided for in the work plan without, however, reducing the number of days of annual leave to which the employee is entitled or increasing the number of hours of annual leave to which the employee is entitled.

Carry-over of leave

Leave is carried over in accordance with the Labour Code, in particular Article L. 233-10 thereof.

If the eligibility conditions for exceptional carry-over provided for in Article L. 233-10 above are met, the employee must indicate in writing, before 1 December of the year for which the leave is due, the period between 1 January and 31 March of the following year in which they intend to take the balance of their leave.

The balance of carried-over leave remaining on 31 March of the following year will be definitively time-barred on that same date unless the undertaking was unable to honour one or more requests submitted in the manner and within the time limits laid down above before that date.

Additional leave (Article 31)

• Blood donation: 0.5 days
• 20^th anniversary of service: 1 day

Termination of contract

Termination with notice (Article 8)

A permanent employment contract is terminated in accordance with the legal provisions in force.

In the event of the termination of the employment contract for economic reasons (schlechte Geschäftslage [unfavourable business situation]), the staff delegation and management must each other on the criteria for selecting the persons concerned (Article 16).

Health, safety and hygiene

Clothing (Article 36-2)

The undertaking will provide staff, free of charge, with the required uniform appropriate to the situation in which the service is carried out (e.g. waterproof jacket for service outdoors in rainy weather, etc.).

Other elements (including sector-specific provisions)

Continuing training

Collective continuing training (Article 36-5)

With effect from 1 January 2020, the social partners decided to set up sectoral training, whose administration and management will be delegated to the Centres de Compétences Génie Technique / Parachèvement (Technical Engineering/Finalisation Competence Centres), subject to later change. The training covered by this sectoral fund will be induction training, introductory training and continuing training courses organised from January 2020 in accordance with the arrangements set out in Article 36-5 of the collective agreement.

Individual continuing training (Article 36-6)

Any staff member completing an individual training course, on the employee’s own initiative, provided by a training organisation and directly related to the work they carry out, will be entitled once a year to:

• a contribution to registration fees of up to EUR 123.95 upon presentation of a paid invoice;
• as far as possible, assistance in arranging their working hours;

subject to the written agreement of the undertaking’s management on the content of the training and the training organisation before the start of the training.

Special conditions for staff assigned to cash-in-transit (Article 36-8)

Special conditions for security officers assigned to cash-in-transit are laid down in Annex 2 to this agreement.

Taking on staff in the event of loss of contract (Article 36-10)

The social partners have agreed to regulate on a sectoral basis what happens to employees when a contract expires or is prematurely terminated for an undertaking (transferor) and a new contract, similar if not identical in terms of purpose, is awarded to another company (transferee) in the course of a new tender or other procedure.

Regarding the transfer of the security and surveillance contract following an invitation to tender or a decision by the client, the obligation to take over the employment contract applies in accordance with the principles set out in Article 36-10 of the collective agreement.

Equal treatment and non-discrimination provisions

Equal treatment regardless of gender (Article 35)

This collective agreement guarantees the principle of equal pay, i.e. the provisions laid down herein, and in particular the rates of pay, apply without discrimination with regard to gender for the same work.

Bullying and sexual (Article 36-9)

Undertakings in the security sector and their employees undertake not to engage in any act of bullying or sexual harassment or any behaviour, gestures, sex-related or sex-based language in the workplace that grossly offends the dignity of people of any gender at work.

Security undertakings undertake to ensure that any bullying or sexual harassment occurring within their undertaking of which they are aware ceases immediately.

Employees are required to inform their employer of any instances of which they are personally aware that may be characterised as bullying or sexual harassment. Measures designed to put an end to bullying or sexual harassment may not be taken to the detriment of the victim of the bullying or sexual harassment.

Acts of bullying or sexual harassment constitute a serious breach of this agreement and may, as such, result in dismissal for gross misconduct of the one or more people involved in the bullying or sexual harassment.