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Can a pregnant employee benefit from a workstation adjustment?
Verified 06 June 2025 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
The employer must ensure the safety and protect the physical and mental health of the employee. Thus, a pregnant employee enjoys protection for her health and that of her child. We are taking stock of the regulations.
What applies to you ?
The pregnant employee's workstation may be adapted in the following cases:
- Employee's medical condition justifying it
- Night worker
- Exposure to particular risks (e.g. toxic products).
FYI
All pregnant women should be able to rest in a lying position under suitable conditions.
Health status justifying it
Pregnant employee can be temporarily assigned to another post if sound state of health requires it.
Job accommodations, such as reduced working hours, may be provided by treaty provisions.
The applicable collective agreement is the one to which the main activity of the company relates.
A simulator is used to search for the collective agreement with the company's name or number Siret :
The pregnant employee may disclose her pregnancy status to her employer at any time.
During this information, the state of pregnancy should be justified by a medical certificate.
The request or the proposal to fit the workstation may be made at the initiative of the employee or employer.
When the employee and the employer agree on the layout of the workstation, the occupational doctor is not called upon.
In the event of disagreement between the employer and the employee or where the change of position takes place at the employer's initiative, only the occupational doctor can establish the medical necessity of this change of job. The occupational doctor then checks the employee's suitability for the new job.
If the assignment is proposed in a other establishment, the employee's agreement is obligatory.
This is a temporary assignment, which may not exceed the duration of the pregnancy. The assignment ends as soon as the woman's health allows her to return to her original job.
The change of assignment does not result in any decrease in remuneration.
The employee, who received a change of assignment during her pregnancy, returns to the job she held before the assignment when she returns to work after her maternity leave.
FYI
Access to the teleworking for the pregnant employee may be provided for in the collective agreement or the charter drawn up by the employer. In the absence of information, telework is possible if the employee and the employer agree.
Night worker
A female employee enclosure recognized night worker may ask their employer to be affected to a post of day to any time of her pregnancy.
A night worker is an employee who performs:
- At least 2 times per week, according to his usual working hours, at least 3 hours of night work
- Or 270 hours at night over a reference period of 12 continuous months.
One collective agreement may provide for different night working conditions.
The employee having delivered shall enjoy the same provisions during the postnatal period of maternity leave when it waiver to this one.
Job accommodations, such as reduced working hours, may be provided by treaty provisions.
The applicable collective agreement is the one to which the main activity of the company relates.
A simulator is used to search for the collective agreement with the company's name or number Siret :
The pregnant employee may disclose her pregnancy status to her employer at any time.
During this information, the state of pregnancy should be justified by a medical certificate.
The pregnant employee who usually works at night may ask the employer to be assigned to a day shift during pregnancy.
The occupational doctor may also find that the night shift is not compatible with the employee's state of health.
If the assignment is proposed in a other establishment, the employee's agreement is obligatory.
The assignment change does not result in no decrease in remuneration.
The inability to accommodate a pregnant employee has consequences for her employment contract and pay.
Consequences for the employment contract
In the event of the inability to arrange the workstation or to reclassify, the employer shall inform the employee in writing of the reasons preventing such temporary assignment.
The employer shall also inform the occupational doctor in writing of these grounds.
The employment contract is then suspended until start of legal maternity leave.
Impact on remuneration
The pregnant employee is entitled to a guarantee of remuneration.
The guarantee of remuneration shall consist of the following allowances:
- Daily allowance paid by the CPAM: titleContent (subject to the conditions for compensation)
- Employer supplement.
The additional allowance shall be calculated as in the case of an ordinary sick leave with the exception of seniority conditions.
Estimating the estimated amount of per diem allowances is possible with a simulator:
Calculate maternity or paternity daily allowance
Please note
The employee must be compensated by the CPAM: titleContent in order to be eligible for the employer's supplement.
The guarantee of remuneration shall not does not apply to employees working in domicile, to employees seasonal, intermittent and employees temporary.
Exposure to particular risks
Some activities include health risks for pregnant female employees and children. The employer must offer a position that is compatible with this situation.
The pregnant employee may disclose her pregnancy status to her employer at any time.
During this information, the state of pregnancy should be justified by a medical certificate.
It is forbidden employ a pregnant woman in the following situations:
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Exposure to ionizing or cosmic radiation and electromagnetic fields
Pregnant women who have declared pregnancy and who are exposed to ionizing radiation shall be informed of possible temporary measures.
She is also informed of the protective rules relating to her state of health.
Where pregnant women remain in a position where they are exposed to ionizing radiation, the employer shall ensure that the exposure limit values for organs or tissues are observed.
The employer is not entitled to assign or maintain a pregnant woman at a workstation where she can receive a dose for 12 consecutive months:
- Greater than 6 millisieverts, excluding radon exposure in the following locations:
- Basement and ground floor of telecommunications buildings
- Specific workplaces including underground works, mines and quarries
- Equivalent to more than 15 millisieverts for the lens
- Equivalent to more than 150 millisieverts for skin and extremities.
A pregnant woman's exposure to ionizing radiation shall not exceed 20 millisieverts over 12 consecutive months for the entire organism.
For organs or tissues, the exposure limit values shall be set as follows:
- 500 millisieverts over 12 consecutive months, for extremities and skin
- 20 millisieverts over 12 consecutive months, for the lens.
Please note
For the skin, this limit applies to the average dose over any surface of 1 cm2, regardless of the exposed surface.
Exposure to certain toxic substances
List of toxic agents prohibited is:
- Proven toxic for reproduction
- Pest control products that can cause hereditary genetic damage or birth defects (labeled as such)
- Carcinogenic and mutagenic pesticides
- Preparation and packaging Thiophosphoric esters (preparation and packaging)
- Preparation and packaging of thiophosphoric esters
- Subsequent derivatives of aromatic hydrocarbons
- Nitro- and chloronite derivatives of benzonic hydrocarbons
- Dinitrophenol
- Aniline and homologues, benzidine and homologues, naphthylamines and homologues.
FYI
The prohibition on aromatic hydrocarbon derivatives shall not apply where the operations are carried out in closed apparatus in normal operation.
Lead metal and its compounds
It is forbidden employ a pregnant woman who is exposed to metallic lead and its compounds.
Benzene
It is forbidden employ a pregnant woman who is exposed to benzene.
Rubella virus or toxoplasmosis if not immune
It is forbidden use a pregnant woman who is exposed to rubella or toxoplasmosis virus if she is not immune.
Mercury and its compounds for secretarial work in the hair-cutting industry
It is forbidden employ a pregnant woman in work involving the use of mercury and its compounds in secretarial work in the hair cutting industry.
Relative pressure greater than 100 hectopascals (hyperbaric medium)
It is forbidden employ a pregnant woman who is exposed to a relative pressure greater than 100 hectopascals (medium hyperbaric).
Work with jackhammers
It is forbidden employ a pregnant woman to work with jackhammers.
Load handling
The use of the devil for the transport of loads is prohibited to the pregnant woman.
The employer shall offer the pregnant employee who occupies a work position exposing her to particular risks another job compatible with her condition.
The employer shall request the occupational doctor on the proposal workstation layout or on temporary assignment.
He then proposes to the employee a workstation layout or a temporary assignment to another post. The proposal takes account of the opinion of the occupational physician.
These measures are possible until the date of commencement of the statutory maternity leave and possibly for a maximum of 1 month after the return of the maternity leave.
They must not lead to decrease in remuneration.
FYI
Access to the teleworking for the pregnant employee may be provided for in the collective agreement or the charter drawn up by the employer. In the absence of information, telework is possible if the employee and the employer agree.
The inability to accommodate a pregnant employee has consequences for her employment contract and pay.
Exposure to certain risks makes it possible to have guarantee of remuneration.
Consequences for the employment contract
Where it is not possible to arrange the workstation or to reclassify it, the employment contract shall be suspended.
The employer shall inform the employee in writing of the reasons preventing this temporary assignment. He shall also inform the occupational doctor thereof.
This suspension is possible until the date of commencement of the statutory maternity leave and possibly for a maximum of 1 month after the return of the maternity leave.
Impact on remuneration
The employee is entitled to a guarantee of remuneration if sound the workstation is exposed to the following particular risks :
- Exposure to products known to be toxic to reproduction
- Exposure to pesticides that can cause hereditary genetic damage or birth defects (labeled)
- Exposure to pesticides classified as carcinogenic and mutagenic
- Lead metal and its compounds
- Benzene
- Rubella virus or toxoplasmosis
- Relative pressure greater than 100 hectopascals (medium hyperbaric).
Establishment of the remuneration guarantee
The guarantee of remuneration shall consist of the following allowances:
- Daily allowance paid by the CPAM: titleContent (subject to the conditions for compensation)
- Employer supplement.
The additional allowance shall be calculated as in the case of an ordinary sick leave with the exception of seniority conditions.
Estimating the estimated amount of per diem allowances is possible with a simulator:
Calculate maternity or paternity daily allowance
Please note
The employee must be compensated by the CPAM: titleContent in order to be eligible for the employer's supplement.
The guarantee of remuneration shall not does not apply to employees working in domicile, to employees seasonal, intermittent and employees temporary.
Who can help me?
Find who can answer your questions in your region
Telephone administrative information - Allo Public Service
For more information on this topic, you can contact Allô Service Public.
Attention: the service does not have access to users' personal files and cannot therefore provide information on their status.
He does not respond questions relating to unemployment compensation and representations to France Labor (formerly Pôle emploi), the officials or contractual of the fpublic service, the amount or payment of contributions social, wage or management.
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The informants who answer you belong to the ministry responsible for labor.
How pregnant employees can access a teleworking organization
Temporary changes of assignment for medical reasons
Temporary changes of assignment due to exposure to particular risks
Allowances paid to women who have been released from work
Compensation guarantee temporary assignment changes
Exposure to ionizing radiation
Right to lie down for pregnant women
Limit values for exposure to ionizing radiation
Exposure to ionizing radiation on board an airplane in flight
Work involving exposure to biological agents
Radiation-exposed work
Work using machines of the pitching hammer type powered by compressed air.
Work involving exposure to hazardous chemical agents
Load handling
Hyperbaric interventions and work
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