The deputies of the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, seized of the draft Social Security budget for 2026, approved on Friday the limitation of the duration of prescribed work stoppages.
This duration will be set by decree, with the government indicating that it wishes to limit it to 15 days for a first work stoppage, if prescribed by a town doctor, and 30 days in hospital. Any extension would be limited to two months.
Indicative durations currently
Doctors may, however, deviate from the ceiling provided “with regard to the patient’s situation” and by justifying it on their prescription.
No maximum duration of sick leave is currently planned, although recommendations exist for certain pathologies, with indicative durations.
Insured persons are also subject to a ceiling of 360 days of daily allowances over three years. In April, Social Security lowered sick leave compensation.
Reassess patients’ health status
This vote in committee is only an indication and the deputies will have to confirm it next week in the hemicycle, where they will start from the government’s initial text.
To justify this measure, the executive points in particular to the growth in expenditure on daily allowances. It must allow “more regular monitoring of patients, therefore a reassessment at the best possible pace of their state of health”, argued the general rapporteur of the text, Thibault Bazin (LR).
Dissociating “work stoppages and increase in fraud”
“Who are we to interfere in the relationship between patient and doctor? », retorted the MP for La France insoumise Ségolène Amiot. She points out a potential lack of visibility for employers wanting to “provide a replacement” with a first stop limited to 15 days.
This limitation “is based on the premise that the increase in work stoppages is an increase in fraud and this is false,” added Hendrik Davi (environmental group).
An amendment by Thibault Bazin was also adopted to remove the possibility for telemedicine to renew a work stoppage, except in the event of duly justified impossibility of obtaining a traditional consultation.
For the recovery, “there is a shortage of occupational doctors”
The deputies also debated the examination for returning to work after maternity leave, carried out by an occupational doctor. This is currently mandatory, but the government wants to make it optional.
“There is a shortage of occupational doctors” and this is a way for the government to “manage the shortage”, criticized MP Paul-André Colombani (independent Liot group).
Thibault Bazin estimated that this measure was likely to be censored by the Constitutional Council, because it had no place in a Social Security budget.
It was deleted in committee, but here again, the deputies will have to renew their vote in the hemicycle, before the text is sent to the Senate.