Donating blood during work hours and getting paid may soon be possible

MPs are examining a bill "allowing employees to participate in blood, platelet or plasma collections during their working hours."

What better reason to take time off work than to donate blood and save lives? This is the subject of a bill being examined this Tuesday and Wednesday, June 3 and 4, 2025, in the National Assembly. Co-signed by 77 parliamentarians from all political parties, this bill has already been unanimously adopted by the Social Affairs Committee. It therefore has a good chance of receiving the green light from the deputies.

The need is vital, and the solution is simple. While it can be difficult to find time to donate blood while pursuing a professional life, the proposed law allows employees, whether in the public or private sectors, to take time off work for the duration of the donation. This will have no impact on their salary. The text "provides that the remuneration paid by the employer to the donor may be maintained for the duration of the donation."

The absence will have to be validated by the employer, who "may ask the employee for proof of donation upon their return to work, for example, their stamped donor card," the bill proposes. A blood donation lasts approximately 1 hour (1.5 hours for a platelet donation) in total, including the preliminary interview, collection, and snack.

According to the signatories of the text, approximately "10,000 blood donations are needed every day" in France. The need is "increasing" but is not being met, forcing the French Blood Establishment (EFS) to import a significant portion of blood products.

Blood, platelet, and plasma donations are essential for treating patients and manufacturing medicines. The signatories of the text point out that blood donations "allow us to treat 1 million patients per year": victims of accidents, surgical operations, people suffering from cancer or blood diseases, etc.

Plasma, for which "donors are too few," is used to treat severe burn victims and immunocompromised children. Finally, platelets are primarily needed by cancer patients. But because of the short lifespan of platelets (only 5 days) and the longer donation time, "it is very difficult for institutions to have sufficient stock," according to the signatories of the text.

Even though the bill has not yet been voted on by MPs, specialists remind us that numerous appointments for donating whole blood, plasma or platelets are available every day throughout France and can be made directly on the EFS website .