What is a company use?

Verified 22 April 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

A use of company is a benefit granted freely and in repeated by the employer to its employees, without that the law, the collective agreement or the employment contract do not impose it on him. Several criteria define usage. The employer may delete or modify a usage in accordance with a procedure. The use must be applied until it has been denounced. We present you the different information to remember.

Usage is a repeated practice of the employer indicating its will to allocate certain benefits to employees of the company. This may include, for example, the payment of a special bonus or the granting of additional leave.

To be recognized as a use, this practice must meet the following 3 criteria :

  • General, i.e. it must be granted to all staff or to one category of staff (e.g. maintenance workers)
  • Consistency, i.e. awarded on a regular basis (e.g. a premium paid for several years)
  • Fixity, which implies that it is determined according to precise rules (a premium whose method of calculation is defined and fixed in advance with objective criteria for example).

Usage is set up without special procedure by the employer and does not the object of a writing.

Example :

A year-end bonus of a fixed amount or method of calculation, granted to all staff every year for the past five years, is a company practice.

Yes, the employer may delete or edit a usage. That's what we call the denunciation of a use.

The employer does not have to justify its decision.

He must then follow the following procedure:

  • Inform the Social and Economic Committee (ESC), where available, the nature and date of application of the benefit deleted or amended
  • Inform each employee individually concerned by simple or registered letter (a poster, an information meeting, the distribution of an internal note are not enough)
  • Respect a sufficient period of warning to allow for dialog and leave room for possible negotiation.

Example :

If the employer wishes to remove a supplement of 13e The month paid in December, he must notify each employee individually in May and the employee representatives in June.

Where the employer has informed the CSE: titleContent (where it exists) and employees individually within a sufficient time, employees can no longer claim the continuation of the advantage that the employer had previously granted them.

The whistle-blowing procedure (informing the EESC where it exists, informing employees individually, respecting a notice period) must be respected, even if the employer and employees agree on the abolition or modification of the use in question.

Usage is binding on the employer.

If the rules of denunciation of use are not respected, the use of company must continue to apply and the employee can claim its retention from the employer.

A document template allows you to claim its retention:

Demand the maintenance of a use of company irregularly removed

The employee who requests the application of a use must prove its existence.

It can do so by any means: testimonials from other employees, pay slips, posting in the company for example.

The employee may also enter the labor court council in case of dispute with the employer.

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