Document Unique Nombre de Salarié Template for France

The Document Unique Nombre de Salarié (DUNS) is a critical workplace safety document that you must create and maintain as an employer in France. This comprehensive risk assessment tool helps you identify, evaluate, and prevent occupational hazards across all work units in your organization, ensuring compliance with French labor law and protecting your employees' health and safety.

When do you need this document?

You are legally required to create a Document Unique when you employ any number of workers, regardless of your company size or industry. This obligation applies whether you run a small business with a single employee, manage a medium-sized enterprise, or operate a large corporation. You must also update this document annually, whenever you introduce new work processes, modify existing operations, or following any workplace accident. If you're establishing a new business in France, creating the Document Unique should be among your first legal priorities before employees begin work.

Key legal considerations

Your Document Unique must include several essential components to meet legal requirements. You need to provide complete company identification details including your SIRET number, business address, and primary activity description. The document must outline your risk evaluation methodology, clearly describing how you identify and assess workplace hazards. You're required to map all work units within your organization and provide an exhaustive inventory of risks for each unit. Critical risk evaluation criteria must include probability, severity, and frequency of potential incidents. You must also detail preventive measures already in place and propose additional safety improvements. Remember that this document engages your legal responsibility as an employer, and failure to maintain it properly can result in criminal liability and significant fines.

Legal requirements in France

French law mandates specific compliance standards for your Document Unique under Code du travail Article R4121-1 and supporting legislation. Since the August 2, 2021 law strengthening workplace health prevention, you must store your document on a digital platform and retain it for 40 years. The document must be accessible to employees, the Comité Social et Économique (CSE), occupational health services, and labor inspectors upon request. You're required to involve employee representatives in the document's creation and updates, ensuring their participation in risk assessment processes. The document must be written in French and tailored to your specific workplace conditions rather than using generic templates. Annual updates are mandatory, and you must document any changes with dates and justifications. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in fines up to €10,000 and potential criminal charges for endangering employee safety.