Document Unique CDG Template for France

The Document Unique CDG is France's cornerstone occupational health and safety document that every employer must create and maintain under French labor law. This comprehensive risk assessment document serves as your legal foundation for workplace safety compliance and demonstrates your commitment to protecting employee wellbeing across all work units in your organization.

When do you need this document?

You must establish a Document Unique CDG if you employ any workers in France, regardless of company size or sector. The legal obligation applies from your first employee and extends to all workplace locations. You'll need to create this document before commencing operations, update it annually or following any significant workplace changes, and ensure it remains accessible to employees, health and safety representatives, and labor inspectors. The document becomes particularly critical during workplace incidents, labor inspections, or when implementing new safety measures that affect occupational risk profiles.

Key legal considerations

Your Document Unique CDG must contain specific mandatory sections including comprehensive company identification, detailed evaluation methodology, systematic work unit analysis, exhaustive risk inventories, and thorough risk assessments with prevention measures. The document requires collaboration with your Comité Social et Économique (CSE), employee representatives, and occupational health services throughout the evaluation process. You must ensure the assessment covers all potential hazards including physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial risks. The evaluation methodology must be clearly documented and reproducible, with risk prioritization based on probability and severity. Prevention measures must follow the hierarchy established in Code du travail Article L4121-2, prioritizing elimination, substitution, collective protection, and individual protective equipment in that order.

Legal requirements in France

Under Code du travail Article R4121-1, you must transcribe all risk evaluation results into a single document and update it regularly. The 2021 health at work law imposes strict digitalization requirements for all companies, making electronic format mandatory from 2023. You must preserve the document for 40 years and ensure accessibility to authorized personnel including employee representatives, occupational health services, and labor inspection authorities. The document must be available in French and updated following workplace accidents, near-misses, occupational diseases, or significant organizational changes. Failure to maintain an adequate Document Unique CDG can result in criminal sanctions under Article L4741-1, with penalties reaching €10,000 for individuals and €50,000 for legal entities. The document must also integrate findings from occupational health services and comply with specific sector regulations that may impose additional risk assessment requirements.