temps captif

09:02 Feb 16, 2014 

in my opinion "on-call" is not what temps captif refers to... on-call is well defined, accepted and paid for.

14:47 Feb 15, 2014 

I think the meaning of "même si" is important. I took it to mean "even if", but I think it means "although" here. This is reinforced by the additional sentence of context you provided, which says "sans être en activité ou productif". In other words, "temps captif" doesn't include time when the employee is working, and my original suggestion of "on-call" or "standby" is correct.

14:09 Feb 15, 2014 

@patrickfor Yes, I knew it wasn't the term required - I just thought it might come in useful in the future! :)

13:55 Feb 15, 2014 

@Elizabeth Gardening leave is quite the opposite in a way... You don't work, you don't come to the office and you get paid! The main reason is your employer doesn't want you to join the competition with "fresh" information. Temps captif is this grey (or not so grey) area where it can be discussed whether you are working or not in terms of time spent and money being paid for it. Gardening leave cannot be discussed in these terms... I think.

12:50 Feb 15, 2014 

@asker Thanks. In french too "captif" has connotations that's why it's used between quotes. It almost unambiguously relates to being captive in the sense of "prisoner".
How to translate this in english I leave it up to a native... Basically it is all about these 'intervals of time' where an employer and an employee can have a very different point of view in terms of "work". The law is quite clear in France on this subject: If the employee cannot do what he wants to do then he is working. Like you have a 30mn break for lunch but you can't leave the premises? Then you are working.

12:09 Feb 15, 2014 

Thanks for your input. Yes, I wanted to just use the term 'captive time' but have never heard it used, certainly not in UK English…. it has connotations! Standby time is a good idea…the idea of being on duty. Could be on-duty time, also, I suppose, or, as you say, on-call time. Was just wondering if there were expressions I was unaware of in employment terms….

12:06 Feb 15, 2014 

Thanks for your input. It is a bit of a debate about time spent working and whether it includes break times etc. I have found a further reference to it further down in my doc:
Il s’agit de périodes pendant lesquelles le salarié reste soumis à l’autorité de l’employeur et ne peut vaquer librement à ses occupation personnelles, et ce même s’il ne fournit aucun travail. Ainsi, ces temps sont en quelque sorte « captifs » dans le sens où le salarié, sans être en activité ou productif, n’est pas pour autant libre de vaquer à ses occupations personnelles puisque le lien avec le travail et l’employeur est maintenu.

10:14 Feb 15, 2014 

We have the term "garden/gardening leave", which refers to a period when the employee has resigned, is instructed to stay away from work during the notice period, but is still on the payroll.

00:25 Feb 15, 2014 

I am surprised by this 'temps captif" concept
Legally if you are at your employer's disposal you are working. '

"Il suffit donc d'être à la disposition permanente de son employeur sous son autorité, sans pour autant effectuer de prestations ou en assurant une fonction de présence ne correspondant pas à un travail concret (surveillance, gardiennage, permanence...) pour entrer dans la catégorie juridique du travail effectif. Dans les autres cas, la Cour de cassation rejette comme temps de travail effectif le temps d'attente pendant lequel le salarié se trouvant en dehors de l'entreprise, n'est pas à la disposition de l'employeur, n'obéit pas à des directives précises de sa part, et peut disposer librement de son temps. "

Could you give us a sample of a sentence where this expression is used?

23:44 Feb 14, 2014 

If they have no work to do, you could call it standby or on-call time. But this appears to apply both to working and non-working time. Why not call it captive time?