An agreement in the yachting branch for the APLD
On 18 December 2020, the social partners in the nautical sector finalised an agreement on the issue of long-term partial activity (APLD). It was signed on the employers' side by the Nautical Industries Federation (FIN) and by the CFDT and CFE-CGC for the employees, with the CGT, FO and CFTC refusing to initial the text. Its entry into force should take place before 1 February 2021. "Our aim after the signing of the collective agreement this autumn was to obtain a branch agreement on the APLD early enough to anticipate the reform of the general system," explains Louis-Guillaume Sabatier, legal manager at the FIN. The notice to extend the agreement by 1 February should come before the changeover of the general system, which has been postponed several times.
Limit the rest to be borne by the yachting companies
The text of the agreement makes it possible to maintain the current conditions for the companies in the yachting sector to be covered by the State (60% of the gross salary) and for the employee (70% of the gross salary). The maximum duration is 24 months out of a total of 36 consecutive months, with a renewal every 6 months, subject to the approval of the DIRECCTE. "It was important to limit the remainder to be borne by companies, which would have risen to almost 50% with the reform, compared with 15% with the branch agreement. We are keeping a system that is favourable to companies and employees," says Louis-Guillaume Sabatier.
Training in new yachting professions
At the same time, the agreement encourages companies to use the time off for training their employees and preparing for changes in the yachting market. "We encourage them to train in professions that are under pressure or have a future, particularly in the field of the digital revolution or ecological transition," says the FIN's legal manager.
An agreement applicable in the long term
Although the NIF has no statistics on the use of the APLD in the boating industry since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, it states that it meets a need of the industry and small businesses in the sector. The text is applicable for applications until June 2022, and for the implementation of APLD until 2025. "It is obviously hoped that companies will not have to apply the APLD until then. We don't have precise figures on which companies in the industry have used it, but there were applications in the autumn, especially from smaller companies for which a company agreement was complex. We are now ready to answer questions from the field," concludes Louis-Guillaume Sabatier.
