Bakery firm adds paid post-maternity leave rising to four weeks

The société Boulangerie Viennoiserie Française, based at Saint-Paul-en-Jarez and part of Groupe InVivo, has signed a company-level accord on égalité professionnelle entre les femmes et les hommes with the FO union delegationLegifrance. Negotiated on 23 June and 6 July 2026, it runs for three years from signatureLegifrance and replaces any earlier company accord, avenant, action plan or usage on the same subject. If a Groupe InVivo accord later covers the same ground, only the measure most favourable to the employee applies, with no cumulation.

The most consequential creation is the congé Schueller, a company-paid extensionLegifrance taken immediately after statutory maternity leave, pathological leave continuing it, or adoption leaveLegifrance. It is requested in writing at least one month before the end of the statutory leave, taken in one unbroken block, and paid at 100% of base salary excluding bonuses and variable elementsLegifrance. Its length grows over the accord: two weeks in the first year of applicationLegifrance, three weeks in the secondLegifrance, four weeks in the thirdLegifrance. Eligibility requires having completed the trial period when the maternity or adoption leave starts. An employee cannot combine it with an equivalent Groupe InVivo measure under a different name; one of the two must be chosen.

On pay, the accord restates the statutory guarantee of article L1225-26 du code du travail — general increases plus the average of individual increases granted to the same occupational category during the absence — and adds a company floor: any employee returning from maternity or adoption leave who received no individual increase during the absence gets a rise of at least 1% of gross base salary, net of any individual or collective increases already granted over the period. A dedicated annual budget of 0.1% of payroll funds catch-up rises where unjustified gaps between women and men are identified after individual reviewLegifrance.

Pregnant employees get practical measures: a nearby parking space on request where sites allow; an exchange with the manager and HR on request to arrange working-time or break adjustments; and, where the occupational-health service records medical restrictions, priority search for a workstation adjustment, failing which temporary assignment to compatible work. Where neither is possible, the accord guarantees full gross base pay until statutory maternity leave begins, assimilated to paid authorised absence, by reference to the accord de NAO of 28 March 2025. Returning mothers get arrangements for continued breastfeeding where organisation allows, including a confidential space where premises permit and an additional 30-minute daily break.

Family-life provisions also grant five days' paid absence at full base salary for the hospitalisation of one dependent child for tax purposes, and eight days where two or more dependent children are hospitalised. On careers, every vacancy must be posted on each site with an application deadline and expected feedback time, every eligible internal applicant is interviewed, and each receives a reasoned reply. Any employee back after a continuous absence of more than six months is offered a return interview with the manager or HR. Recruitment staff and managers are trained on non-discrimination, reaching 50% in year one, 75% in year two and 100% in year three, with a parallel anti-sexism awareness campaign on production sites. Implementation is reviewed yearly against these indicators before the commission égalité professionnelle and the central works council.

Legal basis: accord d'entreprise sur l'égalité professionnelle entre les femmes et les hommes, Société Boulangerie Viennoiserie Française, article L1225-26 and article L2242-17 et suivants du code du travail.