Posting workers to France and filing the SIPSI declaration

A company established outside France that performs a service on French territory declares every posting before work starts, on the Labour Ministry's SIPSI platform, mandatory since 1 October 2016. Failing to declare carries an administrative fine of up to 4,000 euros per posted worker.

The fine rises to 8,000 euros for a repeat within two years, within an overall cap of 500,000 euros. Posting is not local recruitment. The worker stays bound by an employment contract with the foreign employer and does not join the headcount of the French company, yet France applies part of its employment law to the work performed. That combination produces the most expensive gaps.

The declaration, the representative and the documents

The prior declaration is drawn up in French and carries the information listed in articles R. 1263-3 and R. 1263-4 of the Code du travail. It is addressed to the labour inspectorate for the place of performance, or for the first place where the work is itinerant.

The service provider also appoints a representative in France for the whole period of the posting, under article L. 1262-2-1. That representative keeps the documents available to inspectors and acts as the link with the administration. It can be a third party, a firm or the French client, but it has to be named in the declaration.

The subsidiary declaration deserves particular attention. Loi n° 2015-990 of 6 August 2015 created a duty on the French project owner or principal: if it has not been given a copy of the declaration by its contractor, it must itself send that declaration to the labour inspectorate within 48 hours of the posting starting. A French company receiving a Portuguese or Polish crew without having asked for the SIPSI receipt therefore owes the declaration, and the fine.

French law applied to the work performed

Posting does not import the law of the home country. Directive 96/71/EC, revised by Directive (EU) 2018/957, requires the host country to apply a core of mandatory rules, which the French Code du travail transposes. That core covers pay, including overtime premiums and allowances under the applicable collective agreement, working time and rest, paid leave, health and safety, equal treatment, and reimbursement of costs linked to the posting, notably accommodation and transport.

Duration matters. Beyond twelve months, extended to eighteen on a reasoned notification, the service moves into the long term posting regime and a wider body of French employment law applies. A crew kept on a site for two years without reclassifying the regime is an inspection file that writes itself.

During a visit, inspectors ask for the declaration receipt, the A1 form for each worker, the employment contracts, recent payslips or an equivalent document, the record of hours worked, and the appointment of the representative. The documents have to be available immediately, in French or translated, which means preparing them before the work starts rather than on the day of the inspection.

The case of third country nationals

A Nepali, Indian or Filipino worker lawfully employed by a company established in another member state can be posted to France without a new French work authorisation, provided the worker is lawfully resident and authorised to work in the state of establishment. It is the least well understood case in this area and the one that produces the most reassessments, because the exemption covers the work authorisation and nothing else.

The SIPSI declaration is still owed. The representative is still required. The French pay floor still applies. And verifying the permit issued by the state of establishment stays with the service provider, alongside the French principal's own exposure described in illegal employment checks in France.

A company comparing a direct arrival with a posting from another member state is better served by costing both chains in full, reimbursable accommodation and transport included, than by comparing two salary levels. The rules that govern moving a non-EU worker between member states are set out in posting non-EU workers between EU countries, and the split of duties between principal and provider follows the logic described in the EU employer sponsorship compliance chain.

The SIPSI receipt, the A1 form and the named representative are the three items every inspection asks for first. What Werklist handles on these chains is set out on our employers page.