Understanding Your Right of Withdrawal in Labor Law: Protecting Your Health and Safety at Work

In the event of a feeling of insecurity, labor law protects you via the right of withdrawal. “It is the right to withdraw from your job and your work situation for a reasonable reason to believe that your health or safety is in danger, explains Delphine Robinet, lawyer specializing in social law. In view of what has happened over the past few nights, there are a number of people who may consider that they have reasonable grounds to believe that where they are going to work is not safe”. She takes the example of a bus driver who may consider that after 7 p.m. his work becomes too dangerous and that he can therefore exercise his right of withdrawal.

To exercise your right of withdrawal, the process is quite simple. No official deadline is set, it must of course be done as soon as possible. The request is not formal, it must simply be written, in order to keep track of it. “It can be a text message, a WhatsApp, an email”, lists the lawyer. And even if in the end it turns out that there was no danger, the presumption of a possible risk is sufficient.

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Salary can be maintained

If the employer considers that there is a reasonable reason to believe that there is a danger and recognizes the validity of the right of withdrawal, then he will pay his employee, even if he is absent. However, the employer is authorized to contest this right of withdrawal, arguing that, for him, the absence is unjustified. In this case, he does not pay his employee and can even give him a warning. This litigation can then go to the industrial tribunal.

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Another scenario that you may encounter: because of the riots you feel that your journey is not safe or quite simply, no transport is running anymore. It is therefore not the workstation that presents a danger but the journey. “It is then a justified absence”, specifies the lawyer. The employer then has no obligation to pay you if you are absent but he cannot sanction it because the employee has justified his absence by explaining that it is not a decision on his part. “Nothing prevents a magnanimous employer from paying”, slips Delphine Robinet.

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