Staff donate time off to colleague

STAFF at a bus company in Nice have given up a year and a half of overtime lieu days to allow a colleague to care for his brain-damaged pregnant wife and child.

Worried colleagues donated 362 workdays off in lieu to Karim Zaouai, after his wife suffered a brain haemorrhage in July, while five months pregnant with their second child.

Since this spring, a revised law has made it possible for individual workers' RTT (reduction du temps de travail) overtime entitlement to be transferred to another staff member in need.

To qualify, the employee must have a child under the age of 20 with a disability or needing round-the-clock assistance.

It does not extend to a spouse with an illness, but management at Lignes d'Azur transport company made an exception in this case.