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You are here: Home Employment Employment Information French Employment contracts

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17/03/2009French Employment contracts

Explorer Publishing guides you through the paperwork minefield of French employment laws.

Employment Contracts
The French love paperwork and without proper documentation you are powerless. You may have spent 17 years working for Francois Mitterand, but if you don’t have the paperwork to prove it, in the eyes of the French government, it never happened.

This is to say that you are not employed unless you have a signed contract in French. Some employers will offer their foreign employees a translated version of the official French contract – if yours does then consider it a gift, but also keep in mind that the only document which carries any legal weight is that contract drafted in French.

There are essentially two different French employment contracts:
CDI (Contract Duration Indeterminée): an ongoing contract which is very difficult for an employer to end.

CDD (Contract Duration Determinée): a contract with a determined duration. It may not exceed one year and is then only renewable once for a period of no more than six months.

In either case, all of your employment benefits should be included and clearly articulated in your contract.

As a salarié, your contract grants you certain rights and your employer will pay your charges sociales. You are then entitled to a variety of legal benefits including generous unemployment and health insurance. For the first three months of employment, employers have the right to annul your contract. However, you are entitled to all the benefits that a regular salarié would have.

Maternity leave is granted for all female employees, allowing six weeks before giving birth and ten weeks afterwards. With a third child, mothers are granted eight weeks before birth and 18 weeks afterwards. These rights are not negotiated and are the same no matter what your position. Fathers are granted 11 consecutive days paternity leave.
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Ute posted: 10-06-2009 | 1:18 PM

Awfully incorrect aricle in almost all details.
A CDI is quite easy to end, it's the CDD which is almost impossible to end before it's term.
A contract doesn't have to be in writing, if there is no written document the contract is a full-time CDI (everything else needs writing) and the conditions are those of the first payslip.
The period during which the employer or the employee can annul the contract goes from a few days to 6 months, depending on what you negociate, with the "Convention Collecctive" (branch agreement) indicating a maximum duration. During this period, the employee is NOT always entitled to the same benefits, some, like the mutuelle (health insurance which pays the part the sociall security doesn't pay) often is given only to those who stayed beyond the probation period.
The maternity and paternity leaves you indicate are the legal minimum, once again the Convention Collective can have better conditions, allowing days off for you marriage, to assist family events and so on.
Futhermore, the employer is not the only one to pay the charges sociales, you have to say bye-bye to about 20% of your gross salary, too.

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