86er

I quite agree Peter. I havent, or hope I havent, implied that Polish guys are automatically illegal nor have I, or at least I hope I havent, implied that their work is of a differing standard to ours. In truth, I have seen some works by a Polish crew and it was of a very good standard.

JMB -  if it is LEGAL open market competition then you are quite right. But if it isnt legal then its hardly competition. Hence my question in the first instance.

LesFlamands - again I agree with your thinking but I am very concerned about going down that road. What concerns me most is that if this system is not illegal then we all could end up in financial dire straights. I cannot believe that the French authorities would allow an English registered (so I am assured) builder to bring in unregistered Polish workers to come into France, work for 2 or 3 weeks, pay no cotisations or impots and simply clear off into the sunset. If it does prove to be allowable then we have a longer term problem t deal with.

Mmmmm - Jotty - that sounds awful and this is why I wondered if there was a simpler system such as the Small Claims system to avoid this. It appears not, if I read things correctly.

Many thanks Meg - I'm off to spend a while wading through this stuff. Very useful site by the way.

I've been trying to find information on this subject. My reading French is not so hot and the French legal forms and descriptives are heavy going. Does anyone have any useful information on this subject or even any experience of this process. Thanks in advance.

Giantpanda - thanks for the links. My spoken French is reasonable but it'll take me a while to wade through the info within these links. Good practice of course. Iceni - good suggestion and thanks for that - but I'm not sure that I want to go down that road just yet. Les Flamands - in general I agree with your thinking, although I will not comment on the insurance aspect of your post. For sure the client is rubbing his hands with glee and perhaps there will be a degree of "you pays your money" etc - but most of those that operate in this area and do the damage to us are simply working on the black. The big problem with that, of course, is that the client doesnt give a damn. They simply see the bottom line.  

I have just lost a job to someone who himself is registered but, I am led to believe, brings in Polish lads to do the work. He can hammer out the job in half the time and for 30 - 40% less than I quoted. I explained to the client that if this was not legal he should be very careful but he assured me that the registered guy went to great lengths to assure him that it was totally legal. Apparently, the Polish lads come in for 2 weeks, get paid and then head back to Poland. Is this legal ??