Fixed-term or permanent contract in France: pay, bonus, rights

The CDI, the permanent contract, is the normal form of employment in France; the CDD, the fixed-term contract, is an exception reserved for a precise, temporary task: covering for an absent employee, handling extra work, a seasonal job. It cannot be used to fill, on a lasting basis, a job tied to the company's normal activity. Pay can be the same in both, but the length, the way out and what you receive at the end differ a lot. This guide compares them and puts a figure on the gap with an example worked out by the site.

The two contracts side by side

Same job, same pay, but not the same total

The law forbids paying a fixed-term employee less: their pay cannot be lower than that of a permanent employee with an equivalent qualification, in the same job, in the company. Bonuses, a thirteenth month and job-related benefits follow. The difference comes at the end: the fixed-term contract gives an end-of-contract payment, the prime de précarité, which compensates precisely for the lack of security, and untaken holiday is paid out in one go.

Example: €3,000 gross a month for 12 months, with no holiday taken, on a fixed-term or a permanent contract. Net pay each month is the same, €2,353, i.e. €28,234 over the period. Here is what the fixed-term contract pays on top when it ends, worked out by the site's engine.

Calculation: bonus and holiday pay by the site's rules (holiday pay on gross including the bonus, or salary maintenance if higher), net estimated by the modele-social publicodes engine, before tax. Read it carefully: holiday pay is not a bonus, it replaces the holiday you did not take; on a permanent contract you would have taken it while still being paid. The real extra of the fixed-term contract is the bonus. The end-of-contract bonus calculator redoes this for your pay and contract length.

The bonus can drop to 6% if a collective agreement provides for it, with training commitments, and it is not owed in several cases: a permanent contract straight after, serious misconduct, seasonal or customary contracts, a young person's holiday job. The guide on the end-of-contract bonus details its basis and exclusions.

Getting out of the contract

On a permanent contract, either side can end it by following a procedure: resignation with notice, dismissal for a stated reason, or mutual termination by agreement. A fixed-term contract, by contrast, is meant to run to its end. After the probation period, during which either side can end it without giving a reason, it can only be ended before the planned date by agreement of both sides, for serious misconduct, force majeure, unfitness for work certified by the occupational doctor, or because you are hired on a permanent contract elsewhere.

In that last case, you owe notice of 1 working day per week of contract, up to 2 weeks, unless the employer lets you go sooner. If it is the employer who ends it without an accepted reason, it owes you at least the salary up to the planned end date. Notice periods on a permanent contract are in the guide on the notice period.

Back-to-back contracts, moving to permanent

• The waiting period. To fill the same job again on a fixed-term contract, with you or with someone else, the employer must, unless a sector agreement sets another rule, wait 1/3 of the previous contract's length (1/2 if it lasted less than 14 days), counted in days the site is open. Covering for an absent employee and seasonal jobs, among others, are exempt.
• Reclassification. A fixed-term contract with no written form, no accepted reason, renewed beyond the limits or chained without the waiting period can be reclassified as permanent by the employment tribunal, with compensation for the employee.
• Carrying on past the end date. If you keep working after the end date without a new contract, the fixed-term contract becomes permanent, and you keep your length of service. Being hired on a permanent contract at the end of the fixed-term one deducts its length from the probation period.
• Turning down a permanent job. If the employer offers you in writing, before the end date, a permanent contract for the same or a similar job, with at least the same pay and the same hours, grade and place, and you refuse (silence counts as refusal), it informs France Travail; 2 such refusals within 12 months block unemployment benefit, unless you worked on a permanent contract during that time. The guide on unemployment benefit and pay explains the rest.

And temping?

A temp's assignment contract works much like a fixed-term contract, with the temping agency as employer: pay at least equal to that of an employee of the client company in the same job, an end-of-assignment payment on the same principle and at the same minimum rate as the fixed-term bonus, and holiday pay for every assignment, however short. Agencies also offer permanent temping contracts, a different status that guarantees pay between assignments.

Choosing, and negotiating

Banks and landlords often look at the type of contract before granting a loan or a flat: this is not a legal rule, and each sets its own criteria. A well-paid fixed-term job can still be worth more than a cut-price permanent one: what counts is the pay, the role and what it does for what comes next. In both cases, pay is negotiated the same way (negotiating a job offer), and the contract is read before signing: reason, end date, renewal clause, probation. The guide employment contract: the clauses to check gives the full list.