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Inclusion of seconded employees in the calculation of workforce thresholds for the implementation of a collective redundancy procedure

Published on : 30/07/2026 30 July Jul 07 2026
Newsletter / Recent Case Law
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The French Supreme Court has ruled that employees seconded by an external company must be taken into account when assessing the threshold of 50 employees that triggers the obligation to draw up a social plan (Plan de sauvegarde de l’emploi) as part of a collective redundancy procedure, provided they are present at the user company and have been working there for at least one year (Cass. soc., 18 March 2026, n°22-10.903).

The implications of headcount for the applicable law regarding dismissal for economic reasons
Under French law, a social plan must be put in place when, in a company with at least 50 employees, there is a proposed redundancy plan affecting at least 10 employees over a single 30-day period. 

The calculation is therefore based on the rules for determining the workforce, and in particular on Article L. 1111-2 of the Labor Code, which provides that employees seconded to the company by an external firm, who are present on the user company’s premises and have been working there for at least one year, must be included in the calculation of the workforce.

The case brought before the Court concerned a company owning a hotel which was planning to reduce its workforce by 29 permanent posts. The issue at stake was the inclusion in the headcount of 11 employees from a service provider, who were seconded to the company’s premises to carry out maintenance and cleaning tasks.

The employer argued that these employees could not be included, as they were employed by another company, had not been made redundant by him and did not directly benefit from the redundancy plan measures.

The Supreme Court rejects this argument. It states that Article L. 1111-2 of the French Labor Code applies to all provisions of the Labor Code that refer to a workforce threshold, including that relating to redundancy, even if the seconded employees are not affected by redundancies. Consequently, employees of an external company who have been seconded to the user company’s premises and have been working there for at least one year must be included in the workforce count.

In other words, their presence may cause the threshold of 50 employees to be exceeded, thereby making it compulsory to draw up a social plan.

Scope of the ruling and practical implications
The decision confirms a broad interpretation of the rules governing the calculation of the workforce. The fact that an employee is technically employed by another company does not prevent them from being included in the workforce when the legislation relating to the workforce applies to all workers within the company, regardless of whether they are bound by an employment contract or not.

For employers, the implications are significant: before initiating a collective redundancy procedure, it is necessary to verify not only the number of directly employed staff, but also the number of seconded staff who meet the conditions set out in the Labour Code. In this case, their inclusion in the workforce should have led to the implementation of a social plan.
 
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