French Permanent Employment Contract (CDI) Template

For a full-time CDI, no — French law does not require a written contract; the employment relationship can be established verbally. A written document is nonetheless strongly recommended to evidence the agreed terms. A written contract is mandatory for part-time CDIs and all fixed-term contracts. Since the ordinance of 14 June 2023 (implementing EU Directive 2019/1152), employers must additionally provide employees with a written statement of the essential terms of employment.

The cap depends on the employee's category (Labour Code, art. L1221-19): 2 months for blue-collar workers and clerical staff (ouvriers/employés), 3 months for supervisors and technicians (agents de maîtrise/techniciens), and 4 months for managerial staff (cadres). Renewal is permitted once only if an extended branch agreement expressly provides for it and the contract mentions it, bringing total maximums to 4, 6 and 8 months respectively. Before terminating a probationary period, the employer must respect a notice period (art. L1221-26): 24 hours if under 8 days of service, 48 hours between 8 days and 1 month, 2 weeks between 1 and 3 months, and 1 month beyond that.

The contract must identify both parties, state the start date, job title, grade or coefficient, workplace, working hours (35 hours per week, or a fixed-rate working-time arrangement — forfait — if applicable), gross salary, probationary period, and the full name and IDCC code (Identifiant De Convention Collective — the unique national identifier) of the applicable convention collective. Additional clauses such as mobility, non-competition, or confidentiality may be added as required. The convention collective itself may impose further mandatory mentions.

No. Salary must be at least equal to the SMIC (salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance — French statutory minimum wage), reviewed each 1 January and automatically adjusted whenever the consumer price index rises more than 2% above the level at the last revision (Labour Code, art. L3231-5). Where the applicable convention collective sets a higher minimum for the employee's coefficient, that higher figure applies. The greater of the two — SMIC or conventional minimum — is always the legal floor.

Yes. Employers must file a DPAE (déclaration préalable à l'embauche — prior notice of hire) with Urssaf no earlier than 8 days before the start date and no later than the moment immediately before the employee begins work (Labour Code, art. R1221-2). Failure to file — or filing after the start date — constitutes travail dissimulé (undeclared work) and exposes the employer to serious criminal and financial penalties.

The convention collective that corresponds to the employer's principal business activity, identified by its IDCC code. It sets minimum floors for pay, probationary periods, notice periods and bonuses. The contract must state the full name and IDCC code of the applicable agreement, and the employee must be able to consult it. When the conventional minimum salary for the employee's coefficient exceeds the SMIC, the conventional figure is the binding floor.