For an employee to be able to enjoy a voluntary leave of absence, it is necessary to have at least one year of seniority in the company. In this sense:

• The duration of the leave of absence must be between four months and five years.

• The employee can only exercise this right again after four years have passed since the end of the previous leave of absence.

• During the leave of absence, the contract is suspended and the employee only retains a preferential right to rejoin in vacancies of the same or similar category.

Therefore, if an employee requested a voluntary leave of absence and shortly before it ends has requested an extension, the company may refuse (unless their collective agreement expressly provides for that right to extension). The company's right to organize takes precedence over a possible extension request from the employee.

Once the permission has been granted, the employee cannot unilaterally alter it or demand its extension. For these purposes:

• The company, after approving the leave of absence for the requested period, has the right to organize based on that time and its own interests. That right would not be fulfilled if it had to accept subsequent variations unilaterally decided by the employee.

• Furthermore, allowing an extension would, in practice, grant a new covert leave of absence. And this is incompatible with the law, since a minimum of four years is required between the end of one leave of absence and the beginning of another.