Housing foreign workers in France and the standards the employer must meet

When an employer houses its staff in France, the Code du travail sets measured values rather than principles. Article R. 4228-27 requires 6 square metres and 15 cubic metres per person. The labour inspectorate checks on site, and a shortfall carries a fine of up to 4,000 euros per worker.

The administrative fine is counted per breach and per worker concerned. These rules apply as soon as the employer provides the accommodation, whatever the worker's status. They are not aimed at foreign workers specifically, but they are tested most often in international corridors, because the employer there carries the arrival housing as a practical necessity.

The values fixed by the Code du travail

Articles R. 4228-26 to R. 4228-37 form the base for non agricultural sectors. The table below lists the ones inspectors measure first.

The ban on bunk beds surprises employers coming from markets where the dormitory is the norm, and it is the breach most often recorded in a first season. The 80 centimetre spacing and the six person ceiling are measured with a tape. There is no room for judgement.

For farming the reference changes. Articles R. 716-1 and following of the Code rural et de la pêche maritime govern the housing of agricultural employees, with their own grid. A farm housing seasonal staff falls under that body of rules rather than the Code du travail, which changes the documents to produce during an inspection.

The collective accommodation declaration

Beyond the comfort standards, the existence of collective housing has to be declared. Any premises assigned to the collective accommodation of workers is the subject of an annual declaration to the prefecture and the labour inspectorate, within thirty days of that assignment. The duty goes back to loi n° 73-548 of 27 June 1973, and failure to observe it carries a fine of 6,000 euros and up to two years' imprisonment. Hotels and premises made available under an ordinary tenancy are excluded.

A local layer sits on top, and international employers routinely miss it. The règlement sanitaire départemental, issued by the prefect of each department, sets its own hygiene and safety minima, sometimes stricter than the Code du travail. The mayor enforces it, and a breach is a third class contravention carrying 450 euros. The practical consequence is that a building compliant with the Code du travail can still be non compliant with the rules of the department it stands in.

What the employer produces during an inspection

An accommodation inspection rarely stops at one point. The officer checks the declaration, measures the rooms, records the temperature and inspects the sanitary facilities, then cross checks all of it against the payroll. If the housing is deducted from wages, the deduction has to appear on the payslip and be valued under the benefit in kind rules published by URSSAF. A deduction above that value, or an untraced deduction, turns an accommodation file into a pay file.

The second cross check is the address. The address declared for the collective accommodation, the one on the employment contract and the one given to the prefecture when the permit was issued all have to match. Three different addresses for the same worker open a wider inspection, described in illegal employment checks in France.

For seasonal recruitment, accommodation is prepared alongside the work authorisation rather than after the visa arrives. Those milestones are set out in hiring a non-EU seasonal worker in France, and the European floor for seasonal housing is covered in the Seasonal Workers Directive and accommodation.

An employer bringing twenty people from Nepal or India is better served by having the building measured before the contracts are signed, because the available floor area decides how many people may lawfully be housed, and therefore the size of the cohort. What Werklist takes on at that stage is set out on our employers page.