Decree makes single rate mandatory
From 2027, France will require the AT/MP insurance premium (for workplace accidents and occupational diseases, Accidents du Travail/Maladies Professionnelles) to be calculated at company level. This is set out in decree no. 2026-951 of 13 October 2026, published in the Journal officiel on 14 October 2026. In early October, the measure was still only a proposal in the social security budget bill; the decree now puts it formally into law. Outside the Alsace-Moselle region, the AT/MP rate is currently set per establishment. Companies with individual or mixed-rate pricing could previously request a single rate on a voluntary basis for establishments within the same risk category; the decree makes that single rate automatic from 2027. Companies with establishments in different risk categories will continue to pay multiple rates. New establishments will immediately take on the rate of an existing risk category within the company, or otherwise the collective net rate for the year they open and the following two years. In the 2027 transition year, the payroll-weighted average of the 2026 net rates will serve as the basis for capping rate increases.
Financial stakes: less loss from rate caps
The PLFSS 2027, France’s social security budget bill, estimates the additional revenue from the measure at almost 300 million euros; the unions Unsa and FO cite a more precise figure of 288 million euros. The gain comes mainly from a lower loss due to “écrêtement”, the capping of annual rate increases. According to the 2024 annual report of Assurance maladie – Risques professionnels, that cap reduced premiums collected in 2024 by 282.5 million euros; for the establishments concerned, the average rate fell as a result from 5.48 to 3.42 percent. By spreading risk across more establishments, caps are reached less often, allowing the AT/MP branch of social security to collect a larger share of the risk-based premium. The reform is a sensitive one: the occupational accidents and diseases commission CAT-MP asked this summer, in a position paper dated 27 July, for research first into the effect on prevention incentives at multi-site companies, and the organisation Collectif familles: Stop à la mort au travail fears that the accident statistics of the riskiest establishments will be “diluted” in the company average. The union Unsa, by contrast, supports the measure as an incentive to make employers more accountable. The debate dates back to the 2007 Bras report; the 2010 reform retained per-establishment rating, with an optional single rate that is now becoming mandatory.
Context
Elsewhere in Europe too, workplace accident insurers link premiums to a company’s claims history to encourage prevention. Under a bonus-malus system, a company moves up a rung after a year without claims on a ladder of typically 15 to 20 levels; each rung brings either a discount or a surcharge on the premium. Germany applies such a system in the food and hospitality sector through the trade association BGN, and Luxembourg through the accident insurer AAA. A related method is experience rating: a base rate is first set per industry sector, which is then adjusted for each company according to its own accident history.
For HSE professionals outside France, the measure is a sharp example of a recurring dilemma in premium differentiation: the finer the level at which a premium is calculated, the more direct the financial incentive for prevention on the shop floor, but the smaller the risk pooling for the insurer. France is now opting, per risk category, for the pool of the entire company. The coming years may show whether this weakens the prevention incentive at high-risk sites, or whether the effect is mainly financial.
Source: AT/MP pricing: company-level calculation becomes the rule in 2027, 15 October 2026
Additional research: Lexia Conseil (legal explanation of decree no. 2026-951 and the PLFSS 2027 estimates) and OSHWiki/EU-OSHA (external economic incentives for prevention, bonus-malus systems in Germany and Luxembourg) as context.
