Référent Harcèlement Sexuel — France's Statutory Workplace Harassment Referent Scheme

France introduced a dual system of workplace sexual-harassment referents through the 5 September 2018 law “pour la liberté de choisir son avenir professionnel,” in force since 1 January 2019. Companies with 250 or more employees must designate an internal referent (Code du travail Art. L1153-5-1) to inform, orient and accompany employees on sexual harassment and sexist conduct. Separately, every works council (CSE) — required in any company with 11 or more employees — must elect its own referent (Art. L2314-1), who has a statutory right to specific, employer-funded training.
A 2019 DARES national survey found that 10% of women and 2% of men reported experiencing workplace sexual harassment in the preceding 12 months, underscoring why the referent role was created.
The scheme has real structural gaps. No French public body has published a national count of how many referents have actually been designated, so overall coverage cannot be verified. The employer-side referent has no investigatory authority and, unlike the CSE referent, no additional legal protection against retaliation. At the Paris transport operator RATP, one referent reportedly covers roughly 19,600 employees according to a 2022 industry colloquium — an illustrative, not nationally representative, figure. The law also abolished the CHSCT occupational-health committee that commentators say previously held the strongest institutional authority on this issue. No independent evaluation of the referent scheme's effect on harassment reporting or resolution has been published to date.

Read the full analysis: https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000037367660