Intermittent permanent contract (CDII) for a trainer: conditions, sample contract and pitfalls

A training organization specializing in languages concentrates its sessions across the school year and sees activity drop off in July and August. An exam-prep center sees its activity peak for three months a year. In these situations, neither a standard full-time permanent contract nor an endlessly renewed usage fixed-term contract really fits the need: the position is permanent, but its workload is structurally concentrated over part of the year. This is exactly the scenario covered by the intermittent employment contract, or CDII. Here is what it allows, under what conditions it is lawful, and how it fits with the collective bargaining agreement for training organizations.

The CDII: a contract for permanent positions with irregular activity

The intermittent employment contract is governed by articles L. 3123-33 to L. 3123-38 of the French Labor Code. It allows an employer to fill a permanent position whose nature structurally involves an alternation of worked and non-worked periods — not a position simply subject to occasional swings in activity.

This is an essential point of caution: the CDII is not a general flexibility tool. It is neither a per-assignment contract like the CDDU nor a part-time contract that can be adjusted at will to the organization’s needs. The position must, by nature, involve this alternation — typically a trainer whose engagements are concentrated in identifiable periods of the year, with equally identifiable lulls in between.

The essential condition: a collective agreement authorizing it

Using a CDII is never a free choice. The law requires prior collective authorization:

• a company or establishment-level agreement defining the permanent positions that may be filled by intermittent employees and setting the conditions for using this contract; or
• absent a company-level agreement, an extended collective bargaining agreement or branch agreement serving the same purpose.

Without either one, resorting to intermittent work is prohibited. A CDII signed despite this absence is unlawful and is automatically exposed to requalification as a full-time employment contract — including payment of the hours the employee would have worked over the full year had they been employed full-time.

Before signing anything, the first question is therefore not “what contract to draft” but “what text authorizes me to use a CDII for this position.”

What the collective bargaining agreement for training organizations (IDCC 1516) provides

For the training-organizations branch, the national collective bargaining agreement IDCC 1516 itself opens the door to the CDII, but in a targeted way: it authorizes this contract for certain trainers at classification levels D and E, at organizations providing language teaching, without requiring a separate company-level agreement — the branch agreement itself serves as the collective authorization.

For a training organization outside this language-teaching activity, the branch agreement is not enough: using a CDII requires negotiating and signing the organization’s own company-level agreement, precisely defining the positions concerned and the conditions for use. A general-purpose training provider therefore cannot simply invoke IDCC 1516 to justify a CDII for a standard trainer position — this is the most common mistake found during inspections.

The contract’s mandatory content

The CDII must be in writing and must include, in addition to the usual mentions of an employment contract (identity of the parties, position, classification, coefficient, pay):

• the employee’s qualification;
• the components of pay, including its different elements;
• the employee’s minimum annual working time;
• the work periods and the distribution of hours within those periods;
• the conditions for any change to this distribution, and the applicable notice period.

This level of precision is not a mere formality. A reference study by Julia Henly and Susan Lambert, “Unpredictable Work Timing in Retail Jobs: Implications for Employee Work-Life Conflict,” published in 2014 in ILR Review, shows that unpredictable scheduling — poorly defined work periods, last-minute schedule changes — significantly increases stress and work-life conflict for affected employees (see the study). For a training organization, a CDII with vague work periods, or one changed at the last minute, therefore exposes the organization to litigation as much as it degrades the actual relationship with a trainer whose pedagogical loyalty matters.

One more point not to overlook: pay under an intermittent contract, like other discontinuous contract forms, includes a paid-leave compensation allowance (generally 10% to 12% depending on the terms chosen), which should appear clearly on the payslip.

CDII, CDDU, occasional trainer: choosing the right tool

Three arrangements often overlap when managing a training organization’s trainers, without answering the same question:

Criterion	CDII	CDDU	Occasional trainer
Nature of the position	Permanent, with activity alternating by nature	One-off assignment, independent of others	Very limited engagements over the year
Authorization required	Company agreement, or extended branch agreement (IDCC 1516: targeted case)	Authorized sector (teaching) + CBA	Simplified social-contribution regime, not a specific contract
Duration of the relationship	Continuous, over the year, with non-worked periods	One contract per assignment	Variable
Main risk	Requalification as full-time if no agreement	Requalification as permanent if the position is in fact permanent	Exceeding the hours/pay thresholds of the regime
Typical use case	Trainer whose activity is concentrated in recurring periods of the year	Trainer mobilized for distinct one-off sessions	Expert speaking very occasionally

The right approach: start from the actual need — a permanent position with concentrated activity, an isolated one-off assignment, or an exceptional engagement — before choosing the contractual tool, rather than fitting the need to the most familiar contract.

What Qualiopi requires, regardless of the contract

Choosing between a CDII, a CDDU, or any other status never exempts the organization from its quality obligations. Whatever the contract, a certified organization must demonstrate every trainer’s competencies under indicator 21 of the Référentiel National Qualité: diplomas, experience, professional development actions. The trainer competency file is built the same way, whether for a seasonal employee on a CDII or a full-time permanent staff member — the auditor does not distinguish between statuses, only between the evidence provided.

Take action

Securing your trainers’ contracts and your Qualiopi evidence go hand in hand. The Kit Certif Complet (€297, 14-day guarantee) provides the templates and evidence tables for all 32 indicators, including the trainer competency file. Setting up your organization? The ebook “Créer son organisme de formation en 30 jours” (€67) covers status and hiring choices from day one, and the Pack complet (€347) bundles both resources. Browse all our blog articles to go further on managing your trainers.