Hereford Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 An English friend who has recently arrived in France wishes to do a few (6 to 8) hours gardening a week - legally!We would like to employ him and suggested that "cheques d'emploi" may be the answer. This topic was partly discussed under a different thread.Friend has been today to authorites re registering for "cheques" and has been told (so he tells us) that he cannot register until he has a "number" and then he will have to pay insurance of 3000 euros for year one and about 1000 p.a. later. He clearly does not want to do this as he will not earn enough to pay insurance.We are very confused as our understanding was that the cheques d'emploi system was for people wishing to do "domestic, incl. gardening" work for just a few hours a week and avoided the problem of high charges involved in becoming fully registered and therefore work full time. If you have to register and pay insurance separately we cannot see the point of the cheques - surely the registered person would just send a bill like the plumber, electrician etc. We also understood that using the cheques generated insurance etc automatically via the bank.Our questions are: Is anyone using these cheques, either as employer or employee? Has our friend misunderstood the authorities?Any help greatly appreciated. We thought we had cracked the problem of using a gardener and it seems we may not have.Hereford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dordogne Granny Posted February 10, 2005 Share Posted February 10, 2005 The Cheque Emploi is the best way to employ your friend legaly indeed. And that's right your friend needs to have a profesional insurance. But i'm really surprised about the amount of the insurance!! We are a profesional keyholder and we don't pay that amount to cover all our services and our employees!! So i don't understand why they ask him such a big amount!!I will advice your friend to ask another insurance company (try MMA, they have offices all around France) and to be carefull with the words he uses when he will ask a quotation. I will say that to have an insurance just for light-gardening tasks it should be around 400E max. Do not hesitate to send me a PM if i can help youSabine www.en-toutes-saisons.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catswhiskas Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 I managed to get the following information about the cheque d'emploi system as I was doing some gardening work at a chateau which originally started as cash for a trial period. When I insisted on being paid legally I lost the job - what can you do?!!! However, I gleaned some info. from the lady there who was employed under this system who worked as a housekeeper. She was literally paid her 'cheque' every interval (weekly I think) and to the best of my knowledge did not have to make any separate payments for insurance or anything. She also got the 10% extra thing that has to do with holiday time. I think there are areas that are negotiable between employer and employee but it is basically a system that allows you to work legally in this part-time manner and get all the usual benefits. I would suggest that the person your friend spoke to assumed he meant that he was going to be self-employed which does involve hideous charges! I think there is a maximum no. of hours you can work per week but this may well be per employer. You also have to do a certain no. of hours to qualify for the national health system which, from memory, was 60 hours in any preceeding month or 120 hours in the preceeding trimestre. I think I worked out that if you worked all year for a minimum of 12 hours a week you would be covered.TRy looking on this website www.ces.urssaf.fr and look at the cheque d'emploi info. Also, if you do a search on www.google.co.uk you can get the option to translate the page which is a bit sketchy but helpful if your French is limited.As far as the NI number goes (or equivalent), you should get this automatically when you first apply for a rebate from the CPAM using an E111 or E106 or whatever your friend has.The whole system is a bit tricky and some people (employers) are reluctant to use it because of this and obviously because of the extra charges that they have to pay. THe kind of work that you are allowed to do is also limited but general gardening work is fine. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catswhiskas Posted February 11, 2005 Share Posted February 11, 2005 PS! AS far as I know it is you who needs to get the cheques not him. I was told by my employer that I had to go and sort it out at their bank and the bank told me he could simply have used the same cheque book that he used to pay the housekeeper. In retrospect I think I was being given the runaround! But, your friend shouldn't have to register at all just give you his details which you fill in on the paperwork provided with each cheque. He does need a number though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereford Posted February 12, 2005 Author Share Posted February 12, 2005 Many thanks. This thread is also being answered under "Finance". We now have all the info we need and will get a cheque book.Hereford Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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