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Portage Salarial in France

How Boundless employs your workers in France

The employment structure that Boundless operates in France is called Portage Salarial. This is a designation unique to France that sits somewhere between independent contracting and full employment and provides a compliant structure for a company not based in France to benefit from the work of a French resident worker. The mechanics involve a three-party arrangement between the worker (salarié porté), the portage (Boundless) and you as the business benefiting from the work performed. That arrangement comes with two separate agreements - an employment one between the worker and the portage and a commercial one between the portage and the business.

Portage Salarial affords full statutory employment rights to the worker including paid time off, access to unemployment benefits, workload revision meetings, right to disconnect, various forms of paid leave, and a host of protections. It also aligns taxation with regular full-time employment in France. The portage company makes social security, health insurance, and compulsory pension contributions on behalf of the worker. 

All standard end of employment rules apply when working under Portage Salarial, including the mutually agreed termination (rupture conventionnelle) that gives the worker access to unemployment benefits. This requires a 45 day notice period.

In 2023, the Portage Salarial comes with an annual minimum gross salary of €37,394.  On top of the gross remuneration, employers must hold a financial reserve of 10% (bringing the minimum annual salary under Portage Salarial employment from the employer's perspective to €41,133). 

What Boundless does for you

As the portage, we establish and maintain the legal employment relationship with the worker, while a level of independence exists between you and them. Depending on your preference, we sign either an ongoing employment agreement (Contract Duration Indeterminée) or a temporary employment agreement (Contract Duration Determinée) with the worker. The duration of Contract Duration Indeterminée is indefinite, however, the employment will cease when the commercial agreement ends after 36 months if the employee does not find other work. The duration of the Contract Duration Determinée is 18 months, including any renewals).

Non-disclosure agreements and other employment conditions can be accommodated in the standard terms and conditions.

We then register the worker to mandatory social insurance (URSSAF), income protection (prevoyance) and complementary health insurance (mutuelle) providers.

Tracking of the working hours and time off, taking any necessary disciplinary actions, and ending of employment all happen through us. If at any point there is a point of contention, you need to contact us and cannot directly penalise or terminate the employment agreement with the worker. 

Every month we calculate the payroll, deduct all mandatory contributions, and provide the worker with a payslip and detailed cost breakdown that includes: 

  • information about the total amount billed to you
  • amount we charge for our services
  • amounts of social security we pay as an employer and on behalf of the worker 
  • paid holiday reserve
  • financial reserve for the end of employment (see below)
  • the net sum they will receive after all deductions

We file all necessary taxes and pay mandatory contributions to respective authorities.

As part of the monthly activities, we also collect a financial reserve of 10% of the worker's pay. This reserve is built to guarantee the employee an income for periods where they do not have "missions" with clients. 

What you do

You sign our standard commercial agreement that we use for most of the countries we are in, which you can end with one month notice. You continue your working relationship with the worker for ongoing assignments. After the 36 months of employment through Portage Salarial expire, French authorities could ask you to move to direct employment with the worker as a foreign employer.

What the worker does

Once a month, the worker sends us a report of their hours, time off, etc which they fill out directly on our platform. If they want to cease providing services to you at any point, they will ask us to cease the commercial contract with you following the terms of the agreement. At the end of the employment relationship with Boundless, the worker receives their financial reserve one-off payment.  

Differences with standard French employment

While Portage Salarial matches all statutory benefits and rights extended to any French employee, there are a few optional ones, which are not available through this model. Those include profit-sharing schemes, staff representatives or redeployment leave, which only become available at certain company size thresholds.

Also since the employment happens through the Portage Salarial model, it is regulated by the Portage Salarial collective bargaining agreement (CBA) rather than the one your company would fall under (each industry has their own CBAs).

You can find more information on Portage Salarial here (in French).

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