The experience-valuation contract: France’s senior permanent job explained

The CVE in brief: a permanent contract designed for older jobseekers

The “contrat de valorisation de l’expérience”, often presented as the “senior permanent contract”, is an open-ended employment contract created by a French law of 24 October 2025, which puts into law an agreement reached between employers’ organisations and unions. It is a five-year experiment, so the scheme is not permanent in itself and may change.

In substance, the employee signs an ordinary open-ended contract with the same rights as anyone else: pay in line with the collective agreement, paid leave, training, and protection against dismissal. What is particular is how the contract can end: the employer may retire the employee once he or she is entitled to a full-rate pension, under tightly regulated conditions.

Who can sign a CVE? The conditions to meet

According to information published by France Travail, the public employment service, several conditions have to be met at the time of hiring:

• being registered as a jobseeker;
• being at least 60, an age that can drop to 57 where a sector-wide agreement provides for it;
• not already drawing a full-rate basic pension;
• not having worked for the company, or for another company in the same group, during the previous six months.

The employee must also hand the employer a certificate, issued by the French pension insurer (Assurance retraite), stating the expected date of retirement on a full-rate pension. It is wise to ask for it early: it is needed for the signature, and issuing it takes some time. The precise conditions may change as implementing texts and sector agreements are published.

How the CVE differs from an ordinary permanent contract

Day to day, nothing sets a CVE employee apart from a colleague on a standard permanent contract: the same trial period under the collective agreement, the same working-time rules, the same access to training schemes. Three features are specific to the scheme.

1. Eligibility is restricted to older jobseekers, with the requirement to supply the expected full-rate date.
2. The employer knows in advance roughly when the employee’s career will end.
3. The employer gets a time-limited financial advantage, in the form of a partial exemption from the contribution attached to the retirement-by-employer payment.

The CVE should not be confused with the earlier “senior fixed-term contract”: this one has no fixed end date, rather than being a contract of limited duration.

How it ends: retirement by the employer, resignation or termination

As with any permanent job, the employee can resign, and the contract can end through a mutually agreed termination or through dismissal in the cases French employment law allows. A termination before the full-rate retirement point remains governed by the dismissal rules, with the related payments.

Retirement at the employer’s initiative is only considered once the full-rate conditions are satisfied, and it requires a written procedure and a payment at least equal to the dismissal indemnity. It would therefore be wrong to see it as an automatic end: the employer can equally choose to carry on working with the employee. Anyone who wants to leave earlier or later should say so openly, because the full-rate date can shift as a career record changes.

Getting the file ready: career statement and full-rate date

A solid application is built before you apply. An up-to-date career statement, available from your personal pension account, shows any missing quarters and lets you correct an omission. If you have worked abroad or under several schemes, allow extra time.

Next, request the certificate with your expected full-rate retirement date and keep a copy. It helps to understand what it is: it is not a decision to retire, but a benchmark the employer will take into account. If the date looks inconsistent with your record of contributions, have it checked before committing. Finally, keep your France Travail registration, proof of identity and recent employment contracts within easy reach.

Looking for an employer willing to hire on a CVE

Not every company knows this contract yet, since it is new. It can therefore be useful to raise it yourself at interview, making clear that the employer is not obliged to use it: it is an option, not a rule. Some sectors have agreements on employing experienced staff, and consulting them gives you concrete arguments.

To find vacancies, several channels complement one another: France Travail services, agencies and consultancies specialising in support for the over-50s, experience-valuation workshops run by some organisations, your own professional network and targeted speculative applications. Present your career through concrete results rather than a list of years of service.

Before you sign: advantages, limits and precautions

The main strength of the CVE is stability: an open-ended contract gives a visibility that neither a fixed-term job nor agency work can match. It may also reassure an employer who hesitates to hire someone close to retirement, since the departure horizon is known and a financial advantage exists.

The limits deserve a close look:

• the scheme is experimental, and its rules may be clarified or changed;
• retirement at the employer’s request remains possible once the full rate is reached;
• conditions vary with the sector and the collective agreement;
• pay depends on the agreed minimum scales and company policy, with no guarantee linked to the scheme.

Have the contract read by an adviser or staff representative if you have the slightest doubt.

Phased retirement and working while retired: what are the alternatives?

The CVE is just one option for working beyond 60. Phased retirement (retraite progressive) lets people, subject to conditions on age and insurance record, move to part-time work while drawing part of their pension, with the employer’s agreement. Combining work and pension (cumul emploi-retraite) concerns people who have already claimed their pensions: it is unrestricted from the full-rate age, or once the legal age and the required insurance record are reached, and capped in other cases.

Each route has consequences for income and future entitlements. A personalised simulation from the pension insurer before choosing helps you avoid discovering later that you have lost part of your pension or face an unexpected waiting period.

An illustration: a 61-year-old maintenance technician

For illustration only, take a 61-year-old maintenance technician, registered with France Travail after his workshop closed. He obtains his full-rate certificate, which points to a possible retirement in about three years. At an interview he mentions the CVE and hands the employer the certificate; the employer checks that he has not worked within the group for six months.

The contract is signed like a normal permanent one, with a trial period and a salary set by the collective agreement. If the employer proposes retirement at the full-rate date, a written procedure is followed and the due payment is made. This scenario shows the principle without prejudging anyone’s situation.