Key takeaways
- Under French employment rules, employee relocation to another site of the same company is a simple change in working conditions when the new site is within their geographic sector; outside it, the move changes an essential element of the contract and needs the employee’s consent, unless there is a mobility clause, a collective performance agreement, or a temporary transfer justified by exceptional circumstances (Service-Public.fr).
- The mobility clause is not regulated by the French Labour Code. It must appear in the employment contract or the collective agreement and define a precise geographic area; in some cases the employee can refuse it without sanction (Service-Public.fr).
- For housing, the French mobility lease (bail mobilité), a lease for a furnished home, is open to tenants on a job transfer or a temporary assignment (Article 25-12 of the law of 6 July 1989 on landlord-tenant relations (loi du 6 juillet 1989)), for one to ten months (Article 25-14); one week to eighteen months in employment-focused residences, an exception still awaiting a decree according to Service-Public.fr.
- Example rates outside Paris: if the company covers an employee’s housing two nights a week for three months, a hotel costs it about €3,300, a home under a fixed-days lease €1,428 in rent.
Your company has two sites, one in Montpellier and one in Toulouse. The Toulouse team is growing, and you want to send Claire, a project manager in Montpellier for six years, to join it. She has agreed. Her family will only follow after the summer: until then, for three months, Claire will work in Toulouse from Monday to Wednesday and go home for the rest of the week. All quotations from French law and official French sites in this article are our translations; the links go to the French originals.
Employee relocation under French employment law
Service-Public.fr sums up the rules in two pages: one on changing an employee’s place of work, the other on the mobility clause.
Inside or outside the geographic sector
Everything starts from the employee’s geographic sector (secteur géographique). The page on changing the place of work puts it this way: “The extent of the geographic sector is defined as an entire region or a labour market area (bassin d’emploi). Only a judge can assess whether the proposed transfer falls within the employee’s geographic sector or not.” In a dispute, the judge can rely for example on the distance between the sites or the longer journey to work.
Within the same sector, the transfer is a simple change in working conditions. The employee must accept it, the employer must explain its decision, and a refusal can justify a disciplinary sanction.
Outside the sector, the transfer changes an essential element of the employment contract: the employee’s consent is required. It is not required in the following cases:
- a mobility clause in the employment contract;
- the signing, within the company, of a collective performance agreement (accord de performance collective);
- a temporary transfer motivated by the company’s interest and justified by exceptional circumstances.
If the employee refuses a transfer that needed their consent, they keep working under the same conditions, at their original place of work. The employer may still dismiss them if it can justify a reason other than that refusal, an economic one for example.
The mobility clause
The mobility clause (clause de mobilité) is, according to Service-Public.fr, “a provision under which the employee accepts a change in their place of work”. It “is not regulated by the Labour Code”; where it exists, it appears in the employee’s contract or in the collective agreement that covers them. If it was not in the original contract, an amendment signed by the employer and the employee is needed for it to apply.
Case law has set out its conditions of validity and how it is applied. The transfer must meet an objective need of the company. The clause must define its geographic area precisely, “for example, in all the establishments of a département”. Its extent depends on the employee’s role: in general, the higher their responsibilities, the wider the area. It applies only within the company, not in other companies of the same group. And after the contract is signed, the employer cannot change the extent of the area without the employee’s consent.
When the employee can refuse
If the clause is in their contract, the employee cannot refuse to have it applied. They can still refuse without sanction in three cases, according to the same page: the transfer changes an essential element of the contract (a pay cut, a switch from day to night hours or the reverse); they are given too little notice, since the employer cannot make them change workplace overnight; or the transfer harms their personal and family life.
A protected employee (salarié protégé), who holds a trade union mandate or represents staff, is a separate case: even if their contract contains a mobility clause, the employer cannot transfer them to another location without their consent. In a dispute, the employee can take the matter to the conseil de prud’hommes.
In Claire’s case there is no need to settle the sector question: she has agreed, and she changes workplace under the terms of her contract. What remains is housing her.
Housing the employee during the relocation
If Claire rents her home, the Montpellier flat will have to be handed back. If it is rented unfurnished, ANIL points out that the notice period “can also be reduced for a tenant who is transferred for work”.
Hotel, mobility lease or fixed days: the employee’s options during the transition are set out in relocating for work to another French city.
Action Logement. If your company is in the private, non-agricultural sector and has at least 10 employees, ANIL notes that Action Logement offers your staff “temporary housing that can be arranged quickly, subject to conditions”.
On Kowo, the employee signs the lease in their own name; the company can cover the rent according to its policy (reimbursement, allowance). The contract: the fixed-days lease, explained.
How that cover is handled for accounting and social contributions is detailed in the cost of housing an employee on assignment. And if the move concerns a new hire rather than an existing employee, the options are compared in housing an employee on probation.
Three months of transition: what the company pays
Back to Claire: three days a week in Toulouse, Monday to Wednesday, so two nights, for three months. The company covers her housing. The figures below are example rates outside Paris, based on €55 a night for a fixed-days home, not prices observed in Toulouse.
| Company cover, 2 nights a week | Per month | Over 3 months |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel (based on €125 a night) | about €1,100 | about €3,300 |
| Holiday let | about €780 | about €2,340 |
| Fixed-days lease (gross rent) | €476 | €1,428 |
Over the three months, putting Claire up in a hotel costs the company €1,872 more than a fixed-days lease (€624 a month, 1,100 − 476); a holiday let, €912 more (€304 a month). The monthly rent works out as €55 a night × 2 nights × 4.33 weeks. The page for part-time furnished apartments in Toulouse covers the option there.
For property owners: renting to employees in transition
Seen from the other side, Claire is the occupant an owner is looking for when their furnished home sits empty at the start of the week: the same two nights for three months, regular rent on those days. A fixed-days lease covers only those days; on the other days, the owner can rent the same home to another occupant, who will have their own lease. If that rhythm does not fit the property, renting out your second home in France: 5 options goes through the other ways to let it.
Checks before announcing an employee relocation
- The contract and the collective agreement. Is there a mobility clause, and is its area precisely defined? Without a clause in the original contract, a signed amendment is needed.
- The geographic sector. Outside the sector, the employee’s consent is required, unless there is a mobility clause, a collective performance agreement or a temporary transfer justified by exceptional circumstances; in a dispute, only a judge assesses whether the move stays within the sector.
- When the employee can refuse without sanction. A change to an essential element of the contract (a pay cut, a switch from day to night hours or the reverse), harm to their personal and family life, too little notice: they can refuse without sanction, even with a clause. A trade union mandate or a staff representative role: their consent is required.
- The actual rhythm on site. Two nights or five: the number of nights decides between a hotel, a mobility lease and fixed days.
- Your cover policy. Reimbursement or allowance, and up to what amount: to settle before the first case.
Frequently asked questions about employee relocation
Can an employee refuse a relocation in France?
It depends on the setting. Within their geographic sector, the transfer is a simple change in working conditions and a refusal can justify a disciplinary sanction. Outside the sector, their consent is required, unless there is a mobility clause, a collective performance agreement or a temporary transfer justified by exceptional circumstances: if they refuse, they keep working at their original place of work. Even with a clause, Service-Public.fr lists the cases where they can refuse without sanction: a change to an essential element of the contract, too little notice, harm to their personal and family life.
What must a mobility clause specify?
It must define its geographic area precisely, for example all the establishments of a département according to Service-Public.fr. The extent of that area depends on the employee’s role, and the employer cannot change it after the contract is signed without the employee’s consent.
Can a mobility clause be used to move an employee to another company in the group?
No. According to Service-Public.fr, the mobility clause applies only within the company, not in the other companies of the same group.
The housing employees on the move section gathers the other situations HR teams face, and recruiting remote talent looks at housing as a hiring argument.