Employer certificate for France Travail (Cerfa 11383) — guide

Every employer — with no minimum headcount threshold — must issue the certificate whenever any employment contract ends, including apprenticeship and professionalisation contracts. This applies even when the employee resigned: some resignations qualify for ARE since the 2019 reform (career-change project validated by a CEP career adviser, relocation to follow a transferred spouse, unpaid wages, etc.). Refusing to issue the form on the grounds that the employee left voluntarily is not a valid legal defence and will be disregarded by a labour tribunal.

The certificate must be given to the employee no later than the last effective working day — no grace period applies. For DSN-registered companies, digital transmission to France Travail must be completed within the calendar month following contract termination (by the 5th or 15th, depending on company size). Employers outside the DSN scheme can still file via the net-entreprises.fr portal or by posting a paper form to the local France Travail office.

The indicative SJR entered on the form equals total gross remuneration over the last 12 calendar months divided by the number of calendar days in that period (365 or 366). Included items: base salary, overtime, contractual bonuses, and a pro-rated 13th-month payment. Excluded items: severance pay, expense reimbursements, profit-sharing (participation) and incentive bonuses (intéressement). France Travail then recalculates the definitive SJR from the declared data.

Without the certificate, the employee cannot open their ARE entitlement — a compensable loss that can be pursued before the conseil de prud'hommes (labour tribunal). The employer may be ordered to pay damages covering the lost allowances plus a daily penalty (astreinte) for persistent non-compliance. There is no direct criminal penalty, but civil liability is routinely established once the causal link between the missing document and the loss of benefit is proven.

Yes. The employer must issue the certificate even after a voluntary resignation, because French law (since the 2019 reform) allows certain resignations to trigger ARE entitlement — for example, when the employee is pursuing a validated career-change project assessed by a CEP adviser, following a transferred spouse, or has not been paid. France Travail decides whether the resignation qualifies; the employer has no authority to prejudge that assessment by withholding the form.

Employers outside the DSN scheme — such as individual household employers and certain non-profit organisations — may file via the net-entreprises.fr portal or send a paper form to the France Travail office covering the employee's place of work. Since January 2024, France Travail no longer processes paper forms submitted by general-regime companies that have DSN access; doing so delays the employee's benefit entitlement by several weeks.