FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Laetitia Tombarello and Audrey Demourgues, Bredin Prat
1. Employment Terms 1.1 Employee Status Employees in France are typically divided into three categories: • blue-collar workers, who are sometimes subdi - vided into workers ( ouvriers/employés ) and tech - nicians/supervisors ( techniciens and agents de maîtrise ); • executives/managers (cadres , who can be assimi - lated to white-collar workers); and • senior executives ( cadres dirigeants ). National collective bargaining agreements, which are negotiated at the industry level and are in principle applicable to all companies in that industry, typically provide for minimum wages for each employee cat - egory. Provided that they perform their work with a certain degree of autonomy and/or responsibility, execu - tives and (subject to specific conditions) technicians/ supervisors can be subject to a specific working time arrangement calculated in days worked per year (instead of hours worked per week), called forfait- jours . This enables the company to pay a lump-sum salary to the employee regardless of their actual work - ing hours (see 1.3 Working Hours ). Senior executives (ie, employees with the highest level of responsibility and remuneration within a company) are not subject to working time regulations. 1.2 Employment Contracts In principle, an employment contract is deemed to exist when a person undertakes to work for and under the direction of another in return for remuneration, even in the absence of a written contract. This defini - tion is articulated around three principles: • the performance of work, which can involve a wide variety of tasks (manual, intellectual or artistic), in all professional sectors; • the payment of remuneration in return for the work performed, whether paid in money or in kind, and whether calculated on a time or commission basis; and
• the legal subordination – ie, the authority of the employer who has the power to give orders and instructions, to monitor their execution, and to sanction the employee’s failings. Indefinite-Term Employment Contracts Indefinite-term employment contracts are the stand - ard form of employment. They do not have to be in written form from a strict legal point of view, but the majority of companies in France execute written con - tracts. Any unwritten employment contract is deemed to be Definite-term contracts can also be used. Unlike indefinite-term contracts, they must meet the follow - ing requirements in particular: • be executed in writing within two days of the start of the employee’s employment; an indefinite-term, full-time contract. Definite-Term Employment Contracts • be entered into to carry out a specific, temporary task, and only in a limited number of cases pro - vided by the law, such as a temporary increase in activity, the replacement of a temporarily absent employee, or seasonal work; • have a definite date of termination, which can be a precise date or a specific event, such as the tem - porarily absent employee’s return date; • not exceed the maximum length authorised by law (eg, 18 months in the case of a temporary increase of activity, renewable twice as long as the total duration does not exceed 18 months); and • have neither the purpose nor the effect of perma - nently filling a job linked to the normal and perma - nent activity of the company. Definite-term contracts that do not follow these legal requirements can be requalified into indefinite-term contracts. Part-Time Employment Contracts Part-time employment contracts can also be con - cluded for employees working less than the standard working hours – typically 35 hours a week or 218 days a year (see 1.3 Working Hours ). Among other require - ments, these part-time contracts should be in written
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