Any employer wishing to recruit an employee must conclude an employment contract either before or on the first day of employment.

The employment contract is an agreement that governs a work relationship through which one person undertakes to work under another in return for remuneration.

An employer recruiting a new employee in response to a lasting need for personnel as part of the normal and permanent activity of the business generally resorts to a permanent employment contract (contrat à durée indéterminée - CDI).

The employer can only use fixed-term contracts (contrat à durée déterminée - CDD) in exceptional cases in response to isolated needs of the business.

The set of rules applying to any employment contract, namely with regard to the form, the content and the trial period also apply, in principle, to a fixed-term employment contract (CDD).

The fixed-term contract must also satisfy certain additional obligations in terms of:

• motives justifying the use of a fixed-term contract;
• its content in terms of:
  • duration;
  • mandatory information;
  • trial period.
• end date of the contract.

Who is concerned?

The following are concerned when drawing up a fixed-term employment contract:

• the employer who wishes to recruit an employee for a limited period of time to execute a specific task limited in time;

• the employee who wishes to work under an employer in return for remuneration;
• the lawyers or jurists commissioned by the employer to draw up employment contracts.

What are the prerequisites?

Before recruiting an employee and drawing up an employment contract, any employer must first make a declaration of vacant position to the Employment Administration (Administration de l'Emploi - ADEM).

This declaration enables the ADEM to check if any jobseeker who has priority with regard to employment is available.