Chapter V: Maternity, paternity, adoption and bringing up children

An employee to whom the administrative authority or any body designated by regulation entrusts a child with a view to adoption is entitled to adoption leave of up to sixteen weeks, taken within a period and divided up in accordance with the terms and conditions determined by decree. Adoption leave is extended to : 1° Eighteen weeks when the adoption brings the number of children for whom the employee or…

Adoption leave suspends the employment contract. During the suspension, employed parents benefit from the protection against dismissal provided for in articles L. 1225-4 and L. 1225-5. The application of these articles does not prevent the expiry of the fixed-term employment contract.

The dismissal of an employee is cancelled if, within fifteen days of being notified of the dismissal, the person concerned sends his employer, under conditions determined by regulation, a certificate proving the arrival in his home, within fifteen days, of a child placed with a view to adoption. This certificate is issued by the administrative authority or by the authorised adoption body that placed the child. These provisions do not…

When the duration of the adoption leave is divided between the two parents, the adoption of a child by a couple of employed parents gives entitlement to an additional twenty-five days of adoption leave or thirty-two days in the case of multiple adoptions. The leave thus allocated may not exceed, for each parent, the period of sixteen weeks or, where applicable, eighteen or twenty-two weeks provided for in article L….

An employee holding the authorisation referred to in articles L. 225-2 and L. 225-17 of the Code de l’action sociale et des familles (Social Action and Family Code) benefits from adoption leave when they adopt or receive a child with a view to adoption by decision of the competent foreign authority, provided that the child has been authorised to enter France on this basis.

The employee notifies the employer of the reason for his absence and the date on which he intends to end the suspension of his employment contract. The period of adoption leave is treated as a period of actual work for the purposes of determining the employee’s seniority rights.

At the end of the adoption leave, the employee returns to his/her previous job or a similar job with at least equivalent pay.