Employer's obligations to manage emergency first aid for workers who have suffered an accident or become unwell (Ministerial Order no. 2024-54 into force on 27 September 2025)

Ministerial Order no. 2024-504 of 19 September 2024 (JDM no. 8714 of 27 September 2024) specifies the conditions for managing emergency first aid for workers who are victims of an accident or who are taken ill (employer's obligations: TRAINING, if necessary PREMISES for emergency first aid, etc.). It will come into force within 1 year of its publication date, i.e. from 27 September 2025.

It applies Article 24 of Sovereign Order no. 6.987 of 29 June 2018 relating to the organisation and modernisation of the operation of occupational medicine, which states that ‘Every company must be able to provide first aid in the best conditions and as quickly as possible to workers who are victims of an accident or who are taken ill under the conditions laid down by ministerial order.’

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SUMMARY

¤ Employer's obligation to ensure that the required number of members of staff receive first aid training in order to perform emergency first aid to workers who are victims of an accident or are unwell for:

1. any premises in which more than 50 workers are simultaneously and permanently employed by the same employer;
2. each building or civil engineering site employing at least 20 workers for more than 15 calendar days;
3. each workplace other than those referred to in 1. and 2. where dangerous work is carried out, the list of which is set out in the appendix.

¤ The Ministerial Order sets the minimum number of people who must have first aid training and be present in the workplace, depending on the number of workers and the location and type of work, depending on how dangerous it is.

¤ When employees of several employers work in the same workplace, it is possible to pool the personnel trained in first aid.

¤ (Continuing) first aid training : face-to-face by an organisation whose corporate purpose includes the provision of professional training ; initial training: may not be less than 7 hours ; regular renewal of the training within a maximum period of 3 years in order to maintain and update the necessary skills: duration may not be less than 3.5 hours. The time spent on training is taken out of working hours and is paid as such at the normal end of the period. The cost of the training and related expenses are borne by the employer.

La formation (continue) au secourisme :

• face-to-face by an organisation whose corporate purpose includes the provision of professional training;
• initial training: may not be less than 7 hours;
• regular renewal of the training within a maximum period of 3 years in order to maintain and update the necessary skills: duration may not be less than 3.5 hours.

The time spent on training is taken out of working hours and is paid as such at the normal end of the period.

The cost of the training and related expenses are borne by the employer.

¤ Power of the Labour Inspector ("Inspecteur du Travail"), at any time, to ask the employer to designate the personnel who must receive first aid training.

¤ Obligation of the employer to bring to the attention of all employees, by posting or by any other means, the name and contact details of personnel who have received first aid training.

¤ Specific provisions when the total number of employees present simultaneously on a building or civil engineering site reaches 100:

The employer(s) shall, where appropriate, provide a room for emergency first aid, easily accessible and containing:

• first aid equipment;
• emergency instructions to be followed;
• a register or other equivalent medium to record the date of interventions, the names of the persons receiving first aid and their employer, the nature of the injuries sustained and the treatment administered.

This room is kept in a constant state of cleanliness. Its location is appropriately signposted so that it can be easily identified.

In employers' premises or on building and civil engineering sites where dangerous work as specified in the appendix is carried out, each employer must take the necessary measures to ensure that none of his workers intervenes in isolation at a point where he could not be rescued quickly in the event of an accident or illness.

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Dangerous work includes work:

1. exposing to ionising radiation;
2. exposing to hazardous chemical agents as defined in Annex I of Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, which may entail significant risks to physical health due to hazardous properties such as explosiveness, category 1 flammability, corrosiveness, acute toxicity, carcinogenicity, mutagenicity and/or toxicity for reproduction;
3. exposing workers to group 3 and 4 pathogenic biological agents as mentioned in Annex III of Directive 2000/54/EC of 18 September 2000 on the protection of workers from risks related to exposure to biological agents at work;
4. exposing to particular risks such as crushing, severing, catching, perforation, projection of pressurised fluid, landslides, burial;
5. of maintenance on very high or very low temperature installations;
6. exposing to contact with bare live parts at voltages higher than very low voltage (VLV) as defined in Ministerial Order no. 63-112 of 29 April 1963 concerning safety at work in establishments where electrical currents are used;
7. exposing to a risk of falling from a height of more than three metres;
8. exposing to a risk of drowning;
9. of demolition;
10. in or on tanks and material accumulators or in a confined atmosphere;
11. in a hyperbaric environment.

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