Muriel Penicaud, the French Minister for Labor, presented the assumptions for the next labor market reform in France. The draft Act on the freedom to choose professional future provides for additional provisions regarding the posting of workers. The project proposes, among others increasing financial sanctions and exceptions to the obligations related to the posting for a small group of employers and services.
According to the announcements of the French authorities, the legal changes will take effect this summer and will encompass:
– A penalty for violating the provisions on posting (non-compliance/undue fulfillment of posting obligations) will increase from 2 thousand to 3 thousand euro for a posted worker, and in the case of repeated infringements from 4 thousand to 6 thousand euro. There is an upper ceiling of penalties in the amount of 500 thousand euro.
– Exceptions to certain delegation procedures. This is to apply to short-term or incidental services, including services listed in the Services Directive. In these cases, the French will not require a declaration/certificate of posting nor the establishment of a representative in the territory of their country. Other exemptions could be established on the basis of international agreements. For example, for border companies that would delegate employees to the border area of France.
– Introduce a new type of breach of the law, a so-called “fictitious posting” which happens when a company carries out real, permanent and established activity in France, despite having a formal seat in another Member State, in which the entity has only an administrative center. This solution is designed to combat “letterbox” companies.
– Publish a public record of employers convicted for illegal work. These data will be made public on a website specially created for this purpose.
Minimum wage and anti-fraud legislation
These are not the only changes. The social partners in the transport sector have recently reached an agreement on the increase of minimum wages for drivers. Unfortunately, the document is not public.
In addition, the French government is working on new anti-fraud legislation. The bill on combating tax, customs, and social fraud provides for sanctions of up to 10 thousand euro for entities that provide, for example, financial or billing consultancy services to employers. The provision also applies to entities that store documentation. The liability of such an entity would be related to the conscious abuse of the social security/labor law or to accept such abuse in employee settlements.
Photo: Twitter/Muriel Penicaud