CORONAVIRUS: Supporting document for business travel
As part of the emergency measures taken against the Covid-19 epidemic, the French President decided, on March 17th, 2020, to reduce as much as possible travels and contacts, and ordered a containment applicable within the entire territory. Travelling is therefore prohibited except in very specific cases and only if justified. Home/work commutes and business travel which cannot be postponed fall under these exceptions.
Consequently, all employees who have to leave their home for business purposes, including short commutes, must have in their possession a supporting document, established by the employer. The supporting document called in French “Le justificatif de déplacement professionnel” has been recently modified, and an updated French version is available at the following web address: https://mobile.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Attestation-de-deplacement-derogatoire-et-justificatif-de-deplacement-professionnel.
Please be aware that to date, the English version made available on this website has not been updated when compared with the new French version Thus, we do not recommend to use it.
The supporting document must be completed by the employer to justify any business travel of the employees, i.e.:
– usual journey between the employee’s home and his/her place of work, or between different places of work when it is required by the nature of his/her duties;
– business travel, when it cannot be postponed, at the request of the employer.
Please note that a statement certified by the employee is no longer required, in addition to this supporting document.
The employer is required to indicate, in the supporting document, all places of exercise of the employee’s activity , unless the nature of the activity does not enable to know these work places in advance (for examples: deliveries, on-call interventions, etc.).
The validity period of the supporting document is determined by the employer, and there is no need to renew it every day. It must be determined taking into consideration the organizational changes made by the employer as well as any periods of leave or rest.
Failure to comply with these criteria may result in a fine for the employee of 135 euros, or 200 euros in the event of a repeat offense within 15 days. If there are 4 breaches within 30 days, the behaviors may be punished with 6 months of imprisonment, with a fine of 3,750 euros and with an additional sentence of community service.
Should you have any questions, or need assistance, please contact our Employee Relations team (csarremejanne@hiconnect.fr and tbureau@hiconnect.fr).