Changes to employee secondment regime in France

Since 30 July 2020, changes have been made to the secondment regime in France. The Labour Administration has detailed the new provisions and we have outlined the main points for employers to note:

Remuneration: All employees seconded to France must benefit from at least the minimum salary in France, but also from the principle of equal treatment “Equal pay for equal work” with employees employed under a French contract. Therefore, an employee seconded to France by a company established abroad receives the same remuneration (including salary and other elements of remuneration) as an employee employed by a company established in France performing the same tasks. The Labour Administration specifies that this includes minimum salary, paid leave, increased salary for overtime, etc.

Business expenses: The foreign employer must pay the professional fees incurred by the seconded employee for transport, meals and accommodation incurred during secondment (certain conditions apply such as the reimbursement of expenses to be provided by legal or conventional rules, or that expenses are incurred to travel to or from their usual place of work in France). The Labour Administration specifies that, outside these conditions, the law from the country of origin applies.

Law applicable during secondment: For the first 12 months of secondment, mandatory French rules are only applied for seconded employees. From the 13th month of secondment, all the legal and conventional employment rules that are applicable to employees of companies in the same professional sector established in France, now will apply to seconded employees, with certain exceptions. Therefore, in theory, from the 13th month, more rules are applicable to seconded employees. However, the employer may request an extension of the application of the mandatory rules period, up to an additional six months after the end of the original 12 months, but employers must provide a valid justification for such an extension.

Calculating the duration of the secondment: To assess whether an employee has been seconded for more than 12 months, calculations include the period spent in the service of the same client and at the same workstation. Short interruptions (e.g. rest periods, short-term sick leave) are taken into account, whereas longer breaks are not. In case of successive secondments for the same employer but to another client (or to the same client but at a different location from the host country), the different periods of secondment are not cumulative. In cases of replacement of a seconded employee by another seconded employee, both periods are cumulative.

Duty of vigilance: Clients who use the services of companies established outside of France that second employees to France, own the responsibility to verify, before the start of the secondment, that the service provider has fulfilled their prior obligation to send to the Labour Inspector, via the SIPSI teleservice, a declaration of secondment including the appointment of a representative in France. They must request the acknowledgement of receipt of this declaration or, failing that, do the declaration themselves.