RTT - qu'est-ce que c'est ?
What is RTT in France ?
France is often considered one of the most generous countries for holiday entitlement. In France on top of the ‘Conges Annuels’, or annual leave, of 25 days employees are also entitled to something known as RTT days or ‘Reduction du temps de travail’ translating as ‘Reduction of working time’.
RTT days were brought in by the French government in 1998 in a bid to reduce rising unemployment and encourage people back into work by making conditions more favourable.
With these days being additional to France’s existing annual leave, a formula was agreed to work out the different RTT days each year, to fall in line with calendar years differences.
The stipulation is that no more than 218 days should be worked by an employee each year, so taking into account the fact that each year contains a different number of weekends and public holidays, RTT days differ in number each year.
For example, in 2016 the minimum number of RTT days was 10, meaning employees in France had an annual leave allowance of 35 days.
It is worth noting that many of France’s current 11 public holidays are no longer compulsory, meaning some organizations negotiate with their employees to make certain public holidays compulsory working days.
However, in this case, RTT day allowance will likely not change as worked public holidays simply become ‘working days’ in the above formula.