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Procedure and formalities for hiring an employee

Verified 01 May 2023 - Legal and Administrative Information Directorate (Prime Minister)

When hiring an employee, whatever the nature and duration of the contract, the employer must comply with various mandatory formalities including the declaration prior to hiring (DPAE). Specific additional formalities are foreseen for the recruitment of certain categories of employees.

The content of a job offer must comply with certain rules. It must be written in French (with exceptions) and be dated. Listing must not include a discriminatory criteria on pain of prosecution.

The grounds of discrimination relating to the job offer also apply during interviews.

Pôle emploi offers tools to help recruiters:

The employer is under no obligation to inform Pôle emploi of recruitment offers. It may use other sources, for example: advertisements in the press, professional social networks, online media, recruitment firms, temporary work agencies, trade fairs or forums.

When an employee is hired, the employer must declare it. This declaration is made by means of the pre-employment declaration (PED).

The DPAE: titleContentis already integrated when the employer uses one of the following devices:

  • Company Service Job Title (TESE)
  • Associative Employment Check (CEA)
  • Title Simplified agricultural employment (TESA)
General scheme employee

Pre-Employment Declaration (PED)

What is the purpose of the EAPD?

The DPAE: titleContent allows the employer to make the following statements and requests:

  • Registration of the employer with the general social security scheme in a 1re hiring
  • Registration of the employee at CPAM: titleContent
  • Affiliation of the employer with the unemployment insurance scheme
  • Application for membership of an occupational health service
Mandatory Information

The EAPD shall include the following statements:

  • Name of the company (or the employer's name and forenames) and address of the establishment
  • Code EPA: titleContent company
  • Siret number of the establishment (or the batch number issued by the company formality center, if registration is in progress)
  • Address of the establishment
  • Contact details of the occupational health service on which the employer depends
  • Surname, forenames, sex, date and place of birth, social security number of the employee (if already registered)
  • Expected date and time of hiring
  • Nature, duration of contract and trial period for DTAs and DTAs longer than 6 months
Transmission

It must be transmitted to theUrssaf: titleContent before hiring and at the earliest 8 days before.

Electronic reporting is mandatory for companies who submitted more than 50 declarations of employment in the previous calendar year.

Online Pre-Hire Declaration (PSTD)

For other companies, online filing is preferred, but employers can file a paper return. It is sent by fax or by mail RAR: titleContent.

It must be transmitted to theUrssaf: titleContent on which the establishment where the employee works depends before hiring and at the earliest 8 days before.

The Urssaf no longer sends an acknowledgement of receipt to employers who send their DPAE by post or fax.

Pre-Employment Declaration (PED)

Please note

the employer does not have to make an EAPD when signing a traineeship agreement.

TESE

The TESE: titleContent is a device Urssaf: titleContent intended to simplify certain formalities to be carried out by the employer.

Company Service Job Title (Tese)

CEA

The CEA: titleContent is a device Urssaf: titleContent intended to simplify certain formalities to be carried out by the employer in the voluntary sector.

Associative Employment Check (CEA) - employer space

Agricultural worker

Pre-Employment Declaration (DPAE - MSA)

What is the purpose of the EAPD?

The DPAE: titleContent- MSA: titleContentallows the employer to make the following statements and requests:

  • Registration of the employee at the MSA fund
  • Affiliation of the employer with the unemployment insurance scheme
  • Application for membership of an occupational health service
  • Request for information and prevention visit or request for a medical examination for suitability for employment
  • Declaration on the affiliation of agricultural workers to supplementary pension institutions
  • Application for exemptions from employers' contributions for the employment of a casual worker
Mandatory Information

The EAPD shall include the following statements:

  • Name of the company (or the employer's name and forenames) and address of the establishment
  • Code EPA: titleContent company
  • Siret number of the establishment (or the batch number issued by the company formality center, if registration is in progress)
  • Address of the establishment
  • Contact details of the occupational health service on which the employer depends
  • Surname, forenames, sex, date and place of birth, social security number of the employee (if already registered)
  • Expected date and time of hiring
  • Nature, duration of contract and trial period for DTAs and DTAs longer than 6 months
Transmission

It must be transmitted to theUrssaf: titleContent before hiring and at the earliest 8 days before.

Electronic reporting is mandatory for companies who submitted more than 50 declarations of employment in the previous calendar year.

Online Pre-Hiring Declaration for Agricultural Employees (DPAE-MSA)

For other companies, online filing is preferred, but employers can file a paper return. It can be sent by fax or by mail RAR: titleContent.

It has to go to the till MSA: titleContent on which the establishment where the employee works depends before hiring and at the earliest 8 days before.

The AMM no longer sends acknowledgements of receipt to employers who send their EAPDs by post or fax.

Pre-employment declaration (PED) for an agricultural worker

TESA

The TESA: titleContent is a device of the MSA: titleContent intended to simplify certain formalities to be carried out by the employer.

TESA

Employers who occasionally employ one or more intermittent performers report them to the one-stop shop for the occasional show (GUSO)

FYI  

the employer must establish the ETA even if the employee is not yet registered. He must then ask the employee to make the application to the CPAM: titleContent (or the MSA: titleContent for an agricultural worker) from his place of residence to obtain his social security number (or NIR: titleContent).

Other prior declaration

In addition to DPAE: titleContent, the employer shall make a prior declaration of the persons recruited, by registered letter, addressed to the labor inspectorate:

  • On re-employment in an establishment which has ceased to employ staff for at least six months
  • When reporting a change of company (change of operator, industry or trade, or geographical transfer)

The receipt of the registered letter must be presented by the employer on request of the labor inspection at 1re visit of the latter.

Document to be given to the employee

A copy of the DPAE or acknowledgement of receipt must be given to the employee. This obligation is considered to be fulfilled if the employee has a written contract of employment, mentioning the body to which the declaration is addressed.

Penalties for non-declaration

If the employer does not make an EAPD, it is liable to:

  • Ursaf regularization of unpaid social security contributions due to lack of reporting (civil penalty)
  • A penalty of €1,230 per employee concerned (administrative penalty)
  • Criminal sanctions, as the intentional absence of EAPD constitutes a labor offense concealed by concealment of paid employment

In the case of concealment of paid employment, the employer may be convicted by the correctional court. In this case, the cumulative penalty is:

  • €45,000 fine and 3 years imprisonment for a natural person,
  • €225,000 of fine and placing under judicial supervision for a legal person.

The employer gives the employee a written contract of employment depending on the nature of the contract.

He informs the employee:

  • Collective wage savings schemes in the company and a wage savings book
  • From the mutual company mandatory for all employees. He gives the employee a full notice on the guarantees available when a pension plan is in place in the company.

It provides specific information on the occupational risks and their prevention.

The employer who wishes hire a foreigner must, in addition to the obligations required for any hiring, verify that he has the right to work in France.

The newly hired employee must be registered on the single staff register.

This register must be kept as from 1er employee hired (or as soon as a trainee arrives).

The employer has an obligation to affiliate its employees with the supplementary pension institutions of theAgirc-Arco: titleContent.

This affiliation is effected by the single and dematerialized transmission of the registered social declaration (DSN) all bodies which administer the social protection of employees.

The employer must organize a information and prevention visit or a medical examination of suitability for employment.

Sanctions in the absence of medical examinations

An employer who fails to comply with his medical obligations shall be liable to:

  • a fine of €1,500,
  • a prison sentence of 4 months and a fine of €3,750 in case of recurrence.

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