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1. What is a personnel register?
The single personnel register (RUP), more commonly called “personnel register”, is in principle a document that generally takes the form of a book in which any company manager is required to list all of his employees as well as all the information concerning them.
The personnel register is therefore an instrument of proof of all employees working or who have already worked in the company.
In short, the personnel register plays an important role in the company since this document attests to the precise composition of the company's staff.
Good to know : If your company has several establishments, you must ensure that a single personnel register is established, available and up to date within each of your establishments.
Why is it mandatory for employers to keep a personnel register?
The legislator has imposed the maintenance of a single personnel register in order to ensure total transparency on the personnel employed in the company. Thus, the obligation to implement a single personnel register makes it possible to identify each of the employees, to know the positions occupied by each and to know if an employee has been replaced or if a position has been eliminated.
Is keeping a personnel register mandatory for all employers?
In principle, the personnel register is a mandatory register that is mandatory for all employers: all employers are required to keep a personnel register as soon as they employ employees in their company, as soon as their first employee is employed.
However, there are two types of employers who are not required to keep a single personnel register:
- Individual employers: For example, an individual who employs a home helper;
- The associations.
Who is responsible for implementing the personnel register within the company?
The mission of implementing a single personnel register belongs to the human resources department (when there is one within the company) or to the company manager since he is supposed to know all of his employees.
Who can consult the personnel register?
The single personnel register must be able to be consulted by members of the Social and Economic Committee, officials and agents responsible for ensuring the application of the Labour Code and the Social Security Code, such as the labour inspector and URSSAF agents in accordance with article L.1221-15 of the Labour Code.
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2. Does the single personnel register have to take a particular form?
What format should the personnel register follow?
The legislator has not yet established a legal text to require that the single personnel register must take a particular format.
In short, each employer can freely choose the medium for the unique personnel register of their company. It can keep a record in paper format as well as in digital format.
Therefore, the choice of the format of the personnel register is up to each employer.
However, the register must be in a particular form since the mandatory particulars of the single personnel register must be entered indelibly. In other words, the details concerning each employee must be entered as soon as they are hired within the company.
Note: Each new employee must immediately be registered in the single personnel register. In addition, each event subsequent to the hiring of the employee must also be added to the personnel register as and when they occur.
Good to know : The personnel register must contain both information concerning active employees of the company and information concerning inactive employees. Each new piece of information should not be a substitute for the old.
Can the single personnel register be kept dematerialized?
The single personnel register of any form of company can perfectly be maintained in a dematerialized manner because no legal provision imposes any particular support for maintaining the single personnel register.
Each company manager employing employees has the choice of medium for their unique personnel register.
However, some rules established by the legislator must be respected. In fact, the legislator allows any employer to keep the single personnel register in the format they wish and in particular, in digital format in application of article L.1221-14 of the Labor Code but under certain conditions.
First of all, the employer must be in a position to provide control guarantees equivalent to the control guarantees that it had before the transition from a single paper personnel register to the single dematerialized personnel register pursuant to article L.8113-6 of the Labor Code. Thus, the employer must be able to guarantee that the register is easily searchable by the authorities and bodies mentioned in article L.1221-15 of the Labor Code and in particular, the members of the CSE.
Article L.2315-5 of the Labor Code also requires the employer to consult the members of the CSE before the implementation of a single personnel register in digital format.
In addition, the legislator requires that all entries in the single personnel register, which must be entered as soon as each new employee is hired, be entered indelibly in accordance with article L.1221-13 al. 2 of the Labour Code.
In addition, the dematerialization of registers was recognized and established by decree No. 2019 -1118 of October 31, 2019. Therefore, any company manager can perfectly dematerialize his unique personnel register. In addition, the legislator recognizes that any electronic document has the same probative value as a paper document as long as the person who wrote it is easily identifiable and the document is drawn up and kept in conditions that guarantee its integrity pursuant to article 1366 of the Civil Code.
At Axiocap, we know that maintaining the single personnel register in paper format is a tedious and time-consuming task. That's why our solution allows you to establish your unique personnel register in a few clicks.
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3. What are the mandatory details of the single personnel register?
Mandatory and additional information
Under article L.1221-13 al. 2 of the Labor Code, the single personnel register must contain the names and surnames of employees in the order in which they were hired.
Additional information is also required either for all employees or for certain categories only pursuant to article L.1221-13 al 4 of the Labor Code.
These additional indications are provided for in article D.1221-23 of the Labour Code:
“1° Nationality;
2° The date of birth;
3° Sex;
4° Employment;
5° The qualification;
6° The dates of entry and exit from the establishment;
7° When a hiring or dismissal authorization is required, the date of this authorization or, failing that, the date of the request for authorization;
8° For foreign workers subject to the possession of a document authorizing the exercise of an employed activity, the type and serial number of the document equivalent to a work authorization;
9° For workers with a fixed-term employment contract, the term “fixed-term contract”;
10° For temporary employees, the mention “temporary employee” as well as the name and address of the temporary employment company;
11° For workers made available by a group of employers, the mention “made available by a group of employers” as well as the name and address of the latter;
12° For part-time employees, the term “part-time employee”;
13° For young workers with an apprenticeship or professionalization contract, the term “apprentice” or “professionalization contract.”
Good to know: Information relating to company interns and volunteers in civic service welcomed into the company must be entered in a specific part of the single personnel register in application of article L.1221-13 al. 3 of the Labor Code.
Corrigenative statements
If the status of an employee of the company changes, this change must be amended.
Contract amendments that led to the modification or suppression of an employer's obligation towards the employee must also be corrected. For example, the acquisition of French nationality by a foreign employee who was previously subject to a work permit results in a corrective entry in the register.
In a decision No. 09.40-713 dated 19 May 2010, the Social Chamber of the Court of Cassation considered that any change in the status of an employee during the execution of his contract should be corrected within the single personnel register pursuant to article D.1221-25 of the Labor Code, even if, in practice, the authorities responsible for monitoring the proper maintenance of the personnel register do not sanction the employer if he did not make this correction.
Attention, corrections made by the employer must not result in the deletion of information previously entered in the register.
To remember: In short, the employer must always ensure that its unique personnel register is up to date. When correcting information in your single personnel register, remember to date it for greater transparency and clarity.
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4. How do you fill out your unique personnel register correctly?
You should fill out your unique personnel register based on the flow of employees entering and leaving the company.
As mentioned above, the employer is obliged to register each of its employees in the single personnel register as soon as they are hired, in the chronological order of arrival in the company and to indicate all the mandatory and additional information mentioned above.
⇢ In order to facilitate the writing of your register, we provide you with a customizable single personnel register template to download for free here.
Reliable and indelible information
In addition, the information entered in the personnel register must be reliable and recorded indelibly. Once information concerning an employee has been entered, the employer can no longer modify it pursuant to Law No. 97-210 of 11 March 1997 implemented by the legislator in order to combat illegal or hidden work and avoid frequently observed fraud.
The single personnel register must list all employees in the company, namely active employees who correspond to employees still working in the company and inactive employees who correspond to former employees of the company.
The period for keeping the personnel register
The single personnel register must be kept within the company for 5 years within the meaning of article R.1221-26 of the Labor Code. This period starts on the day the employee or trainee concerned leaves.
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5. What are the sanctions incurred by the employer in the absence of a single personnel register?
In the absence of the implementation of a single personnel register in the company, the employer may be subject to two sanctions.
Payment of a fine
In the event of non-maintenance of the single personnel register, an omission to register an employee or in the event of incomplete information or error concerning an employee, the employer is considered to have committed a criminal offense and will, as such, have to pay a fine of IV class per forgotten employee or in the event of a lack of information concerning this employee according to article R.1227-7 of the Labor Code.
In addition, the fact that an employer does not present the unique personnel register of his company to the labour inspector during his inspection visit may be classified as an offence of interference.
The prison sentence
In the absence of the implementation of a single personnel register, the registration of an employee or an information error or even incomplete information concerning one or more employees of the company, the employer may be implicated for hidden work or illegal work and be sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros under article L.8224-1 of the Labor Code. Indeed, the mere fact of not registering one or more employees in the personnel register can be classified as hidden work.
Good to know: In theory, an employer who does not present his personnel register during an inspection by the labour inspector must be immediately sanctioned, but the practice is quite different. Generally, if the employer is not in a position to present the register because he did not keep one or because the register was not on the premises of the company on the day of the inspection, the labour inspector reminds the employer of his obligation to keep a personnel register, the particulars that it must contain and the sanctions that he incurs if he does not present it during the next inspection visit. A second control visit may be scheduled to present the register.
Do you want to know more? Find our article on the obligations and sanctions of social registers.
