Employment law
The project-based fixed-term contract
Some hires have an obvious end but no date: everyone knows the contract will finish when the bridge is delivered, when the building is handed over, when displaced populations have returned, without being able to say when. This is exactly the situation the project contract addresses.
The Labour Code defines it as a contract entered into for the execution of defined works or the completion of an undertaking whose duration cannot be assessed precisely in advance, and treats it as a fixed-term contract. So it is a CDD, with its own regime on two essential points. Labour Code, Article L.18 (French).
1. What sets it apart from other fixed-term contracts
The project contract enjoys a flexibility the others do not have, but it pays for it immediately:
| Standard CDD | Project CDD | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration limit | 2 years maximum | No duration limit |
| Renewal | 2 maximum | Not renewable |
| What ends the contract | A date, or an event with a minimum duration | Completion of the works |
The trade-off must be understood: you gain the ability to run beyond two years, you lose any possibility of renewal. A three-year site can therefore be covered by a single project contract, but once the works are finished and a new site begins, a new contract is needed, with its own subject matter. Labour Code, Article L.21 (French).
2. When should it be used?
The criterion is not the nature of the trade, it is the impossibility of assessing the duration in advance. Some typical situations:
- construction of a bridge, a road or a building, until handover;
- installation or commissioning of industrial equipment;
- a humanitarian mission in a displaced-persons camp, until the populations return;
- a dedicated-funding project, until its operational close-out.
Conversely, a site whose delivery date is contractually fixed is better suited to a fixed-term contract with a precise term. And a permanent bricklayer's post in a construction company moving from site to site is not defined works: that is the company's normal activity, and therefore an open-ended contract.
3. Why is the definition of the works the critical point?
Because in this contract, the works serve as the term. A contract whose subject matter is vague is a contract with no identifiable term, and a contract with no term is an open-ended contract.
The drafting must therefore allow a third party to answer one question: at exactly what moment does this contract end? That means identifying:
| Element | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The client and the company concerned | Anchors the contract to a real project |
| The location of the site or mission | Defines the works in space |
| A description of the works to be carried out | This is the definition of the term |
| The event marking completion | Handover, delivery, project close-out |
| The employee's role within those works | Anchors the person to the subject matter |
Writing "construction work" is not enough. Writing "structural works on the administrative building at X, in Y, until provisional handover" makes it possible to know when the contract ends.
4. What formalities apply?
The general fixed-term rules apply without softening:
- the contract must be recorded in writing; failing which it is presumed concluded for an indefinite duration;
- it must contain a precise definition of its subject matter, the position held and the length of probation if provided for;
- as a contract with no dated term, it must state the minimum duration for which it is concluded;
- beyond three months, it must be filed with the labour inspectorate of the relevant district before any commencement of performance.
That last obligation covers, in practice, almost every project contract, since their duration nearly always exceeds three months. Labour Code, Article L.21 (French); Decree No. 2022-0125/PT-RM, revised Article D.20-1 (French).
5. How does the contract end?
By completion of the works, quite simply, and this is what allows teams to be released progressively on a site: the earthworkers leave when the earthworks are done, the finishers stay until handover. Each contract ends with the portion of works that defined it, provided that portion was properly described at the outset.
A delay on site is not a legal difficulty: it shifts the term, it does not remove it. That is precisely the value of the project contract, it absorbs the scheduling uncertainty that a precise-term contract cannot bear.
6. Can it be ended before completion?
No, except on the three grounds permitted for any fixed-term contract: gross misconduct (faute lourde), agreement of the parties recorded in writing, or force majeure.
Two warnings specific to this contract:
- A halt to the works is not automatically force majeure. A suspension for budgetary reasons, a dispute with the client or a reorganisation are neither unforeseeable nor external in the legal sense. Force majeure requires an event making performance impossible, not merely more costly.
- The notion of notice does not apply here. Notice is a mechanism of the open-ended contract. An employee on a project contract wishing to leave before completion is in the same position as any fixed-term employee: they need the employer's written agreement.
Termination outside these three grounds entitles the employee to damages equal to the remuneration due until the term, which, on a long-running project, can amount to a very large sum. Labour Code, Article L.25 (French).
7. Is the end-of-contract payment due?
Yes. This is a point on which practice frequently goes wrong.
Article L.24 sets out an exhaustive list of cases where the precarity payment is not due: hourly or daily engagements, seasonal workers, temporary replacements, and sectors where using an indefinite contract is not customary. The project contract does not appear on that list.
| Type of contract | 2.5% payment on completion |
|---|---|
| Project contract | Due |
| Replacement contract | Not due |
| Seasonal contract | Not due |
| Hourly or daily engagement | Not due |
| Contract for a temporary increase in activity | Due |
It remains excluded if the employee refuses an equivalent open-ended contract, or where early termination is attributable to them. The calculation is based on the total gross remuneration received over the whole contract, which on a two- or three-year project represents a sum to be provisioned as early as the site budget. Labour Code, Article L.24 (French); Decree No. 2022-0125/PT-RM, revised Article D.24-1 (French).
Example: a site manager hired for a 30-month project at CFA 400,000 gross per month receives CFA 12,000,000 over the contract. The end-of-contract payment comes to CFA 300,000.
Key takeaways
The project contract is the only fixed-term contract that may run beyond two years. In exchange, it cannot be renewed, and everything rests on the description of the works.
| The rule | What it implies |
|---|---|
| Treated as a fixed-term contract | All the general fixed-term rules apply |
| No two-year limit | A long site can be covered by a single contract |
| Not renewable | A new site requires a new contract, with new subject matter |
| The works serve as the term | Vague subject matter means no term, and therefore an open-ended contract |
| Early termination tightly restricted | A halt to the works is not in itself force majeure |
| The 2.5% payment is due | To be provisioned when the budget is drawn up |