Procedure and formalities for hiring a private sector employee

Verified 01 January 2024 - Legal and Administrative Information Directorate (Prime Minister)

Before hiring an employee, whatever the nature and duration of the contract, the employer must comply with various formalities including the declaration prior to hiring (DPAE).

When should the ETAD be completed? What are the rules? How do I declare the employee? What are the penalties for an employer who does not declare his employee? What information should the employee be given when hiring?

We're doing an update on the regulations.

Step-by-step approach

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 concerning 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.

The employer who wishes hire a foreigner employee must check that the foreigner holds a certificate enabling it to exercise an activity as an employed person.

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

The DPAE: titleContent is 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)

Hiring formalities vary depending on whether the employee depends on the general scheme or the agricultural sector.

Where the employer occasionally employs intermittent of the show, he declares them at the one-stop shop of the occasional show (Guso).

General scheme employee

The formalities vary depending on whether the employer uses the DPAE, the NDER or the AOC.

Pre-Employment Declaration (PED)

What is the purpose of the EAPD?

The EAPD allows the employer to make the following statements and requests:

  • Declaration of 1re hiring in an establishment
  • Registration of the employer with the general social security scheme and with the unemployment insurance scheme, in the case of a 1er salaried worker
  • Application for registration of the employee at the CPAM: titleContent (where he already has a social security number)
  • Employer's membership in an occupational health service
  • Request for information and prevention visit or request for a medical examination for suitability for employment
  • Pre-establishment of the annual declaration of social data (DADS)
What is the mandatory information in the EAPD?

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)
  • 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 DTA: titleContent and CSD: titleContent over 6 months
When and how to transmit the DPAE?

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

The declaration by electronic channel is mandatory for companies who have more than 50 declarations of employment in the previous calendar year.

Online Pre-Hire Declaration (PSTD)

For other companies, the Internet declaration is preferred, but employers can fill in a paper declaration.

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

The formalities vary depending on whether the employer uses the DPAE-MSA or the TESA.

Pre-Employment Declaration (DPAE-MSA)

What is the purpose of the EAPD?

The DPAE: titleContent-MSA: titleContent allows 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
  • Application to benefit from certain employment measures
What is the mandatory information in the EAPD?

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
When and how to transmit the DPAE?

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

The declaration by electronic channel is mandatory for companies who have more than 50 declarations of employment in the previous calendar year.

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

For other companies, the Internet declaration is preferred, but employers can fill in a paper declaration.

It is 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

Guso

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 must 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 to attest to the declaration

A copy of the DPAE or acknowledgement of receipt must be given to the employee.

This obligation is considered 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 subject to the following penalties:

  1. Regularization by the Ussaf of unpaid social security contributions due to lack of declaration (civil penalty)
  2. Penalty of €1,245 per employee concerned (administrative penalty)
  3. Criminal sanctions (intentional absence of EAPD is 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 must give the employee a written contract of employment depending on the nature of the contract.

The employer must inform the employee of the collective arrangements of wage savings in the company and give him a payroll savings book.

The employer must give the employee a complete notice on the guarantees open when provident scheme is in the company.

The employer must inform the employee that he will have a professional interview every two years.

The employer must provide specific information on the occupational risks and their prevention.

The employer must provide the employee with one or more written documents containing the main information concerning the employment relationship.

The time limit for communication, expressed in calendar day or month, varies depending on the information.

Information given to the employee no later than the 7th calendar day after hiring

  • Identity of the parties to the employment relationship
  • Place (or places) of work and, if different, address of the employer
  • Job title, job title, socio-occupational category or job category
  • Hire Date
  • For a CSD: titleContent, the date of termination of the contract or its expected duration
  • Duration and conditions of the trial period, if any
  • Separately identified compensation elements (including overtime increments) and the frequency and procedures for payment of such remuneration
  • Daily, weekly, monthly working hours or the way in which working time is organized where it exists
  • Conditions under which the employee may be required to work overtime or overtime

Information given to the employee no later than 1 calendar month after hiring

  • For a temporary worker, the identity of the user company, when known and as soon as it is known
  • Right to training provided by the employer as part of the training plan
  • Duration of leave with pay to which the employee is entitled, or method of calculating this duration
  • Procedure to be followed by the employer and the employee in the event of termination of the contract of employment
  • Collective agreements and agreements applicable to the employee in the company
  • Compulsory schemes to which the employee is affiliated
  • Indication of the provident and health care contracts which employees collectively benefit from, and the length of service conditions for the benefit of those contracts

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.

Employers who fail to comply with their medical obligations shall be subject to the following penalties:

  • Fine of €1,500
  • 4-month prison sentence and fine of €3,750 in case of recurrence

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