Work Certificate
Verified 18 April 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
When the employee's employment contract ends, the employer must provide him with termination documents. The employer shall, in particular, provide the employee with a certificate of employment at the end of the contract.
What are the mandatory particulars on the work certificate? When does the employer hand it over to the employee? Can the employer be penalized if he does not deliver it to the employee?
We are taking stock of the regulations.
The employment certificate is a document given by the employer to the employee on the date of termination of the employment contract.
It is given to the employee for any type of employment contract (DTA: titleContent, CSD: titleContent...), whatever the reason for the break (resignation, dismissal...) and the duration of the break.
With the employment certificate, the employee can, for example, assert his rights to a labor medal or to show future employers his work experience.
Please note
The employer using the TESE: titleContent has no obligation to issue a work certificate.
The work certificate must contain the following information:
- Date the employee entered the company
- Employee Exit Date from company
- Nature of the post or posts successively occupied
- Periods during which the employee occupied those jobs
- Maintenance of the health coverage and foresight
FYI
the contract of employment could be executed for several successive employers after, in particular, a succession, a sale, a merger, a transformation of the fund, a placing on the business of the company. In this case, the employer must indicate as the entry date the date hired by the 1er employer.
A work certificate template is available:
The work certificate shall not contain any particulars discriminatory or which may harm the employee or a non-compete clause
The certificate of employment shall be delivered at the end of the employment contract.
FYI
if the employee has been exempted from notice, he must be postponed at the end of the unfulfilled notice and indicate this date as the end of the employment contract.
No, the employer has no obligation to send the work certificate to the employee. He must make it available to the employee in the company.
The employer may send it by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, if he so wishes.
If the employer does not provide the employee with a work certificate, he or she may be fined €750.
If the employer does not issue the employment certificate at the end of the employment contract, the employee may to refer the matter to the judge and obtain damages.
Who can help me?
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Telephone administrative information - Allo Public Service
For more information on this topic, you can contact Allô Service Public.
Attention: the service does not have access to users' personal files and cannot therefore provide information on their status.
He does not respond questions relating to unemployment compensation and representations to France Labor (formerly Pôle emploi), the officials or contractual of the fpublic service, the amount or payment of contributions social, wage or management.
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The informants who answer you belong to the ministry responsible for labor.
Delivery of the work certificate
Content of the work certificate
Benefit of the supplementary health and pension free of charge
Document template