Training council seats carry paid meeting leave

The arrêté du 30 septembre 2026 adds the Conseil national de l'orientation et de la formation professionnelles pour le développement des compétences to article 1 of the arrêté du 20 mai 1980Legifrance, the list of bodies whose meetings give employee members a statutory leave rightLegifrance. The addition sits at the end of section B, the joint (paritaire) bodies, just before section C on examination panels. Apart from punctuation modernisation across the list, it is the only substantive change the order makes.

The practical effect flows from articles L3142-42 to L3142-47 of the code du travail. Where an employee is designated to sit on a listed employment-and-training body, the employer must grant the time needed to attend its meetingsLegifrance; where designated for an examination or validation-des-acquis panel, the employer grants an autorisation d'absenceLegifrance. Attendance entails no pay cutLegifrance and the leave cannot be set against annual paid leaveLegifrance. The employer may refuse only where the absence would harm the running of the businessLegifrance, after consulting the comité social et économique, with reasons; the employee may challenge the refusal directly before the conseil de prud'hommes under the accelerated procedure. The deadlines for requesting the leave are set by company or branch agreement, failing which by decree, and a decree also allocates the salary-maintenance and travel-cost burden between the body and the company.

The newly listed council is itself recent: décret n° 2026-258 du 8 avril 2026 created the Conseil national de l'orientation et de la formation professionnelles pour le développement des compétences in the code du travailLegifrance, with provisions on its composition, organisation and functioning. Its members who are employees now join the holders of the same leave right as members of bodies such as the commission nationale de la négociation collective, de l'emploi et de la formation professionnelle, the France compétences board, the France Travail board and committees, the comités nationaux et territoriaux pour l'emploi, and the various joint employment-and-training commissions.

The 1980 list remains structured in three parts: section A for administrative commissions, councils and committees, section B for joint bodies, and section C for panels sitting on certifications in the répertoire national des certifications professionnelles, attestations validating skills blocks, and certifications or authorisations in the répertoire spécifique. The modifying order's article 1 amends article 1 of the 1980 arrêté to insert the councilLegifrance; its article 2 provides for publication in the Journal officiel. No provision of the order states a deferred application date. Legal basis: the arrêté du 30 septembre 2026 modifiant the arrêté du 20 mai 1980 pris en application du premier alinéa de l'article L3142-42 du code du travailLegifrance.