How to set telework up
The Labour Code offers three routes. A collective agreement is the heaviest and rarely suits a small company. A charter is a document the employer drafts after consulting the staff committee, where one exists, and since there is usually no committee below eleven employees, a small employer often just decides and publishes it. Where there is neither, the employer and the employee can agree on occasional telework by any means, including an email exchange, as long as both sides plainly say yes.
Whichever route you take, the document should say which roles are eligible, how an arrangement starts and how it ends, how working time is tracked or workload regulated, the time slots in which the employee can normally be reached, and how employees with disabilities get access to it. If a role is eligible under your charter and you turn down a request, you have to give a reason.
What you owe a teleworker
A teleworker has the same rights as a colleague in the office, which includes meal vouchers where comparable colleagues receive them. On top of your usual duties, you must tell the employee about any restrictions on equipment and online tools and the sanctions for breaking them, give priority to teleworkers who want to move back into a position without telework that fits their skills, and hold an interview every year about working conditions and workload.
Who pays for what
An employer bears the professional expenses an employee incurs for the job. In telework that means equipment, software and a reasonable share of the costs the employee takes on at home, mostly internet and electricity. You can reimburse real costs against receipts or pay a flat allowance.
The flat allowance is where URSSAF's scale comes in, because it sets the ceiling below which the payment is exempt from social contributions. For 2026, and where no collective agreement applies, the published scale is 2.70 euros for each day of telework up to 59.40 euros a month, or 11 euros a month for each day of telework per week. These are ceilings, not obligations. If you pay more, the excess is added to the contributions base, unless a collective agreement or charter justifies a higher amount by the real costs involved. The scale is revised every year, so check it before you write a figure into a contract.
Accidents, hours and monitoring
An accident at the place of telework during working time is presumed to be a work accident. The presumption can be challenged, but the burden falls on whoever challenges it, so for a small employer the practical point is to have the telework schedule in writing. Without one, an argument about whether someone was working when they fell off a stepladder in the garage is hard to win.
Working time rules still apply at home, and so does the right to disconnect. On monitoring, the CNIL's line is that permanent surveillance of teleworkers is disproportionate: keyloggers, continuous screen capture and a webcam that must stay on all day are the usual examples. If you need some control for security or workload reasons, pick the lightest option, tell people before it starts and consult the staff committee if you have one.
A setup checklist
Choose the route: charter, agreement or a written occasional arrangement.
Define eligible roles, the number of telework days and notice for changes.
Record hours, availability slots and how workload is monitored.
Fix the expense rule, flat allowance or real costs, and the amount.
List the equipment you provide and the rules on using it.
Cover the security basics: password manager, two-factor authentication, automatic updates.
Put the annual interview in the calendar.
Where AI helps
Drafting is the slow part. Mirage Cloud includes an HR agent scoped to French labour law and connects to PayFit, which makes it a reasonable way to get a first version of a charter and a list of questions for your adviser. Treat the output as a starting point, because your collective agreement can override parts of it and a charter with legal consequences deserves a read by someone qualified before it goes out.
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