Turnover and management of pre-employment medical visits in France.

Several activity sectors in France are facing employee turnover that is larger than in other sectors. For example, the sectors of trade, restoration, and construction. For these sectors, the management of pre-employment medical exams can quickly become a real issue.

Turnover of the salaried workforce in a company, is based on calculating the average of the entry and exit rates. It is accepted that the calculation consists of adding the entry rate and exit rate and dividing the result by two for a given period (excluding transfers between establishments).

The entry/exit movements are analyzed by the DARES (Management of the Activities of Research, Studies, and Statistics). The different patterns of workforce movements are taken into account in the analysis of these statistics (short-term contracts, permanent contracts, departures for retirement, exits during trial periods…).

The management of employee turnover for employees stationed in France on short-term contracts (CDD)° and the pre-employment medical visit.
Even if it makes sense for a company to study the reasons for its turnover, the fact remains that a company must ensure the performance and management of medical visits, even for a short term contract. Overlooking French legislation and the obligation to have incoming employees take an employment medical visit remains a choice that is very risky for companies experiencing this turnover.

Indeed, the employer must ensure that employment medical visits are conducted for its employees occupying positions in France, no matter the length of the employment contract. A medical exam taken prior to employment remains an obligation even for contracts of short duration.

We cite the case of a company whose executives were prosecuted for not having conducted employment medical visits on their incoming employees. The executives of the concerned organization were hiring employees for a short duration. On the basis that the trial periods were very short, and therefore it was not possible to physically conduct the employment medical visits in such a short time, they thought they were covered by making declarations of employment to the URSSAF (French organization for the collection of payroll and social contributions). The organization’s executives thought they were acting in good faith.