Sick leave in France: daily benefits, checks and your rights

Sick leave filed late costs several hundred euros, and an outing outside permitted hours can suspend payment. The rules have also changed, with a lower cap since 2025. A lawyer reviews your situation in 20 minutes on Avocat20min.fr.

Sick leave: the first 48 hours

The doctor issues the certificate on a secure form, usually sent online to the health insurance fund. You still carry one duty of your own.

Recipient	What you send	Deadline
Local health insurance fund	Parts 1 and 2, where the filing is not electronic	48 hours
Employer	Part 3	48 hours
France Travail, if you are registered	The full certificate	48 hours

Sending it late brings a warning, then a reduction in daily benefits if it happens again within twenty-four months. Certificates written on plain paper, meanwhile, have not been accepted since 1 July 2025.

How daily benefits are calculated

The fund pays a benefit equal to 50 % of the basic daily wage, worked out on the last three months of gross salary. The April 2025 reform nevertheless lowered the earnings cap, from 1.8 to 1.4 times the minimum wage.

Period	Maximum daily benefit
From 1 February to 30 June 2026	€41.95 gross a day
Since 1 July 2026	€42.97 gross a day

The first three days are not paid: these are the waiting days. They do not apply to workplace accidents, to occupational illnesses, or to the extension of the same sick leave.

Entitlement finally requires a minimum of work, either 150 hours over the previous three months, or contributions on 1,015 times the hourly minimum wage.

The employer's salary top-up

The law requires a top-up from the employer after one year of service, following seven waiting days for ordinary illness. That top-up brings pay to 90 % of gross salary for thirty days, then to two thirds for a further thirty days.

These periods grow with length of service. Above all, many collective agreements do better: full pay from day one, waiting days removed, longer cover. So check your agreement before doing any sums.

Payment often goes through subrogation: the employer receives the daily benefits directly and pays you a full salary.

Checks during sick leave

Two kinds of check coexist, with different authors and different effects.

• The health insurance check, carried out by a medical adviser. It may conclude that you can return to work, which ends the daily benefits.
• The employer's counter-visit, carried out by a doctor they instruct, framed by the decree of 5 July 2024.

The counter-visit takes place at the address you gave, without an appointment, or at the doctor's surgery on request. So give the address where you are resting if it differs from your usual home.

A report concluding that a return is possible suspends the employer's top-up, and the doctor sends their opinion to the fund, which may suspend the benefits in turn.

Permitted outings and duties

The certificate states whether outings are free or not. Where nothing says otherwise, you must be at home from 9 to 11 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m., weekends and public holidays included.

Four duties complete that framework:

• Following the doctor's instructions and the prescribed treatment.
• Avoiding any unauthorised activity, paid or not.
• Telling the fund about any stay outside the department, which requires prior authorisation.
• Attending appointments with the medical adviser and the medical service.

Working during sick leave exposes you to repayment of the benefits, a financial penalty and a disciplinary sanction that can go as far as dismissal for serious misconduct.

Returning to work and unfitness

After sick leave of at least thirty days for ordinary illness or a non-work accident, a return-to-work medical with the occupational physician becomes compulsory. It takes place within eight days of your return.

The occupational physician may declare the employee fit, fit with adjustments, or unfit. A finding of unfitness then places a redeployment duty on the employer, followed, where that fails, by dismissal for unfitness with specific compensation.

A pre-return medical can be arranged during the leave itself, at the request of the employee or the treating doctor. It prepares the return and prevents many terminations.

When to consult a lawyer

A lawyer challenges a suspension of benefits, defends against a questionable counter-visit and secures the return where unfitness looms. They also check the salary top-up your collective agreement provides. A social security lawyer answers within 20 minutes. Where income stops, the RSA sometimes takes over. The official amounts sit on ameli.fr.