the government is preparing the future Universal Time Savings Account

The traditional time savings account (CET) was created with the 35 hours at the beginning of the 2000s. The objective was to allow employees of a company which decided to join the system to save days of leave or RTT to train with, later, the possibility that this work time “put aside” will be transformed into hard cash. Today it is therefore a question of transforming the system into an expanded version, included in the social agenda for this year by the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne. The government’s recommendations for developing the new text must be sent on Monday, November 20, to the social partners.

The CET becomes the CETU

Today, as soon as an employee starts working, they accumulate training rights which they record in a personal account. These are rights that can be spent throughout the year. The CETU (Universal Time Savings Account) aims to extend the system to companies which have not yet implemented the initial system. Thus, the days saved by the employee over the years, whatever their company or branch of activity, can be transformed, at a given time, into days of leave or additional remuneration.

It was a demand from the CFDT that President Emmanuel Macron had included in his program for a second term in 2022. The idea reappeared during the difficult pension reform. It is now up to the social partners to agree on the scope and conditions under which employees will be able to benefit from it. Everything will be put on the table, from the type of employment contract, to seniority, including the specificities by sector of activity. One point will be particularly discussed, the possibility for the employees concerned to transform their saved time into money to increase their remuneration and improve their monthly income. The unions are already warning that there is no question that the new system envisaged will be a brake on hiring.