Ka Ora!

The Oh has just discovered she is in a 13 Month salary job, The 13 month being paid mid december. However the colleague explaining this to her took great delight in saying you won't get it because she started on the 6th of January and needed to be there on the 1st.

Are these schemes on a per company basis or are they governed at a higher level, To be honest we had never knew about it, It was only because she had asked when pay day was at christmas the subject came up.

Tweedpipe

If the others in the same company get it and if she is on a CDI I'm sure she will have no problem - although I'm no expert (son No1 will know for sure as he is a manager in HR). I'll send him the query by e-mail.
Just found the following which may help too:
"Gratification versée par l'employeur, égale à un mois de salaire. Le 13e mois n'est pas prévu par la loi. Il peut résulter de la convention collective, du contrat de travail, d'un usage ou encore d'un engagement unilatéral de l'employeur.
Le treizième mois peut être versé en une ou plusieurs fois. En cas de rupture du contrat de travail, il sera toujours versé au prorata du temps de présence."

Tweedpipe

This link may be helpful too.
http://www.meteojob.com/carriere/13eme-mois.html

Note: in the above text, I'm not too sure what to make of this comment, which may throw in an element of doubt.
'En cas de litige, le salarié devra prouver son existence annuelle, et pour tous les salariés.'

cjm

Hi KO - I guess you've already searched the web for some info. I have no personal experience of this system, but there appears to be variations on the theme. It is not 12 x monthly as we Brits may be used to, but 13 x four weekly, which uses the 365 days to create the 13th 'month'. For some the 13th is paid before end December some after, but it is not a 'bonus'. Bonus linked companies can have a 14th week.
If you start work after the first day of the month, then surely salary is pro-rata for the first pay period, whatever system. If the company works a Jan 1 start date for all employees, that surely means almost all employees will not qualify, so was the colleague being mischievous.

dmu

Hi, when I was salaried at first, I had a 13th month. The first year was pro rata as I only started in September of that year. This 1/3rd extra salary was a happy surprise as, arriving from the UK, I didn't know what it was! All the employees occasionally got a partial 14th month depending on the bosses' generosity.
I expect Mrs. Ka Ora!'s 13th month will be 11/12th of her monthly salary this year, if, as her delightful colleague pointed out, she missed starting on 2nd January and so "lost" January.

Novocastrian

I was on this sort of salary scheme when I worked in Germany. cjm is right in the sense that your annual salary is no higher, it's not like a bonus. Moreover in Germany taxes are deducted monthly (as in the UK), but the December tax is much higher than twice the Nov amount, because the revenue treat the total pay in Dec. as 1/12th of an annual rate, not as 2/13ths.

Still it was nice to have a bit of extra cash at Christmas.

Ka Ora!

Thanks all, I figured it`s not a bonus just crafty maths you decide what to pay someone for a year deduct some over the year. Then give it back latter The oh is on a CDI.

cupoftea

I didn't get the 13th month during my first year on CDI when I started employment at the beginning of June - not even pro rata. You had to have been there for the full year. I have had the full amount since then every year.

dennerlymum

just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons, the OH is on a 13th month salary and his is a bonus; an extra month paid on the annuity of his contract;

He does need to have work a year to get it hence it is paid on the annuity.... so if it is this type of 13th month then your OH might not get it this year

dmu

So, Tweedpipe's first reply is correct. It depends on several circumstances and I was lucky in my first December....

Ka Ora!

My oh gets a bonus on top of the 13 Month salary if she makes target to confuse the issue.

cupoftea

Not sure whether this is relevant to your OH's situation, but I also have a bonus scheme which runs independently of the 13th month bonus. This also did not apply during my first year, because it was not a full year. The bonus could only be achieved on a full year of work, I got it from the second year. Perhaps your OH needs to talk to someone more senior in the company to find out exactly what her position is?

Tweedpipe

All of us living in France already know that often things aren't as simple and straight forward as they should be regarding administration affairs due to the complexity of French bureaucracy.
I learn from an H.R. professional that there are many variables, which makes it difficult to make an accurate statement in the case indicated by Ka Ora.
For example the situation varies if the company is unionized or not. I think I've understood that if it is, there isn't much an individual can do, the collective labour agreement would prevail. On the other hand if the company is private, then there should be a clause in the internal policy (or in the original offer letter).
There are also some interesting comments on Wiki concerning-
- Condition de présence postérieure à la date de versement
- Droit au prorata
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_%...C3%A9ration%29

Domino

about 30 years ago Rolls Royce in the UK used to pay every 28 days, giving everyone a 13 payday cycle. A friend of mine worked there and said it was excellent.

when I was in the Royal Navy we were paid every 14 days, meaning we had 26 paydays.

AFAIK it all equals out at the end of the day to the same per annum that you agreed to when starting the job.

rgds

Peabrain

Hi,
The law (theoretically) requires all salaries to be paid by the 31st of December, for obvious tax reasons. The French state, being one of the country's worst employers often used to blithely violate this obligation, but over the past few years has got a lot better.