What are the pension contributions of an employee on secondment?

Abroad or in an international organization

Attachment pension plan

An employee seconded to a foreign government or agency located in the territory of a foreign state shall contribute to the foreign pension plan to which his employment relates. This is the case when a person is posted abroad to an international organization, a foreign status association, a foreign educational institution, etc.

The official shall also contribute to the foreign pension scheme in the event of secondment to an international body located in the national territory. This is the case in a secondment to Unesco in France for example.

Possibility of continuing to contribute to the French pension scheme

An employee may apply to continue to contribute to the pension fund of his or her original employment by:

• Civil and military pension scheme if he is a State official
• CNRACL is a territorial or hospital official.

The employee must make a written request to his home administration within 4 months of the date of notification of the posting decision.

In the absence of an application within that period, the official shall be deemed to waive that possibility.

If the secondment is renewed, the election made for the previous period of secondment shall be tacitly renewed.

However, the official may submit a contrary application within 4 months of the date of notification of the decision to renew the secondment.

The assessment shall be calculated on the gross salary of the employee's original employment prior to posting, taking into account any advances made during posting.

If the employee only contributes to the foreign pension plan

Where the employee has not chosen to continue to contribute to the French pension plan, his membership in that plan shall be suspended for the duration of the secondment.

The period of secondment shall not be taken into account in the calculation of his retirement by the SRE or CNRACL.

However, if the staff member is seconded to European Economic Area (EEA) or in Switzerland, the period of secondment is counted in the term of insurance for all schemes.

This term of insurance for all plans determines the haircut or override..

The period of secondment shall also be counted as the duration of insurance under all schemes if the activity pursued by the official outside the EEA or Switzerland is recognized as equivalent under the general social security scheme pursuant tointernational agreements [application/pdf - 1.1 MB] or bilateral ..

If the employee continued to contribute to the French pension plan

When the employee chooses to continue to contribute to the French pension plan, the period of secondment is taken into account for the calculation of his retirement by the SRE or the CNRACL.

However, when he retires, the accumulated amount of French and foreign retirement pensions must not exceed the amount of retirement he would have received had he not been posted abroad.

If the cumulative amount is greater, the amount of the SRE or CNRACL pension is reduced by the amount of the foreign pension.

However, the civil servant may request a refund of his contributions to the civil and military pension scheme or to the CNRACL.

In this case, once the contributions have been reimbursed, the period of secondment is no longer taken into account for the calculation of his French pension.

And the cumulative amount of French and foreign pensions is no longer limited.

The employee must submit his or her application for a refund of contributions to his or her home administration.

He must make this request when his foreign host administration or agency has confirmed to him that he is receiving a foreign retirement pension and at the latest at the same time as his French retirement application.

Other cases of secondment

The employee continues to contribute to the pension fund of his or her original employment:

• Civil and military pension scheme if he is a State official
• CNRACL is a territorial or hospital official.

The pension contribution shall be calculated on the gross salary of the employee's original employment prior to posting, taking into account any advances made during posting.