Cleaner of French home says I should have paid into a pension for her: is she right?

Reader question: I hired a woman to clean our second home when away for around 20 years, averaging about €3,000 per year. She now says I should have been paying her pension contributions and I am worried she could take it further. Is she correct? 

Domestic helpers, including cleaners, should never be employed cash in hand or ‘on the black’ as this is considered to be social security fraud.

Instead, home help workers should be employed through the ‘Cesu’ system (chèque emploi-service universel) to allow for social security contributions – including pensions – to be covered. This is organised by the employer, and in some cases allows for tax credits.

The main exception to this is if the cleaner had their own company (eg. auto-entreprise) for cleaning, in which case this is their responsibility, especially if they had other clients as well.

Penalties for ‘employers’ of workers on the black apply both to larger enterprises as well as individuals who hire home help, and include cases where social security payments through Cesu are omitted.

Employers of all sizes face the same penalties such as fines and potentially imprisonment in some cases.

This applies both in cases where trade registers are not informed of the work, and where information about payslips, social security, etc is not provided.

We cannot tell from the information provided whether or not you did take any steps to pay any contributions, however if you did not and the cleaner takes the matter further, there is a risk a court could conclude that she should have been declared as an employee and that social contributions should have been paid. 

Any documents showing how the arrangement was agreed may be relevant should this happen.

However, the legal responsibility for declaring domestic employees and paying the appropriate social contributions generally rests with the employer. The consequences would depend on the precise circumstances.