You have signed a quote with a company. It sends its workers. You assume, reasonably, that how it employs its people is its own business.
It is not, and this is the most expensive unpleasant surprise of opening, because it does not arrive during the work: it arrives months later, in the post.
The duty of vigilance
In that capacity, you must:
- ask your contractor for its certificate of vigilance (attestation de vigilance) issued by Urssaf, when the contract is signed;
- ask for it again every six months until the work is finished;
- check that it is genuine, by entering the security code printed on it into Urssaf's verification tool.
Those three steps, in that order. A certificate handed to you and filed without being checked does not protect you: it is precisely the document a company with something to hide will forge.
Why it is you who pays
If your contractor has used undeclared labour and you have not carried out those checks, you are jointly liable. In concrete terms: Urssaf can claim from you the contributions and taxes your contractor failed to pay, in proportion to the work it carried out for you.
So a labour inspection on your site is an inspection that concerns you. The workers are not your employees, but the site is yours.
What it actually takes
Three minutes per contractor, twice a year.
- At signature: “Please send me your Urssaf certificate of vigilance.” A company in good standing has it to hand; it downloads it online.
- You enter the security code on the Urssaf site. The tool tells you whether it is genuine.
- You file it with the quote. Six months later, you ask again.
A company that drags its feet, or explains that it does not need one, has just told you something useful.
The other traps on the same site
- The pre-hire declaration (déclaration préalable à l'embauche) concerns your own employees, not your contractors'. But if you hire your team before opening — and you will, for training — it must be filed in the eight days before they start, not after.
- The single staff register (registre unique du personnel) must exist from your first employee.
- The mandatory workplace notices are prepared before opening, not on the day of the inspection.
What to check yourself
The €5,000 threshold is assessed per contract, not per invoice: five quotes of €1,500 with the same contractor may constitute a single contract. If you have any doubt about an arrangement — chains of subcontracting, a foreign contractor, a sole trader — put the question to your accountant or to Urssaf directly, and put it before you sign.