FROMONT BRIENS

[ARTICLE] Middle East: duty of care and repatriation, 2026/05/21

The internationalisation of career paths has never been so pronounced. Between secondments, expatriation, cross?border remote working, nomadic work and new forms of mobility, both companies and employees are operating in a legal environment that is constantly evolving.

To support companies through these changes, the International Mobility team at Fromont Briens, led by lawyers Sophie Pélicier?Loevenbruck, Pierre Sandres, Thomas Baudoin, Charles Dumel and Pierre Pomerantz, has launched the first edition of its newsletter dedicated to international mobility.

Below, you can find one of the articles from this inaugural issue (available here): Following the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East, many individuals have found themselves stranded abroad. This exceptional situation has given rise to a wide range of consequences across equally varied circumstances: employees on paid leave, employees on assignment abroad, and seafarers awaiting passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

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Employees stranded abroad: duty of care and repatriation in the current Middle East context

During paid leave, the employment contract is suspended, and the French Labour Code does not impose any specific obligation on the employer in the event of an exceptional circumstance preventing the employee from returning to work at the end of their leave.

In such circumstances, it is highly unlikely that an employer could validly treat the situation as job abandonment and impose disciplinary sanctions, provided the employee can justify their inability to return.

The issue of pay is, however, more complex and potentially contentious. Employees may argue that they were prevented from returning to work despite being available to perform their duties and may therefore claim continued remuneration. Conversely, employers may rely on the principle that wages are the consideration for actual work performed, which is absent in this case, and that force majeure releases both parties from their respective obligations.

In practice, where an employee is stranded abroad after the end of their leave, dialogue is usually the best approach to avoid deterioration of the employment relationship. Possible solutions can include authorised paid or unpaid leave, advance use of paid leave entitlements, or exceptionally allowing remote working from abroad.

Where an employee is stranded abroad during an assignment carried out on behalf of the employer and is unable to perform their duties, the employer remains bound by its statutory duty of care and has every interest in complying in order to limit litigation risk. This duty may involve organising repatriation where possible, providing assistance in finding secure accommodation, and liaising with diplomatic services if necessary.

To anticipate such scenarios, employers may take out specific insurance policies covering, in particular, repatriation and accommodation costs.

Depending on the nature of the employee’s international assignment (secondment, expatriation, business travel, etc.), employers must also consider mandatory local public policy rules, which may offer enhanced protection. In any event, employers must also refer to any provisions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement relating to the protective measures to be put in place for employees on assignment abroad. For example, in the “Quarries and Materials: Industrial Sector”, executives benefit from employer?funded protection in the event of disturbances in the host country threatening their safety, as do employees in the “Pharmacy, parapharmacy, veterinary products: manufacturing and trade” sector.

These statutory and contractual obligations do not, however, apply where the employee is abroad for purely personal reasons, unless the employer expressly agrees that the employee may work remotely from abroad until return becomes possible.

The use of furlough schemes (partial activity) due to exceptional circumstances may also be considered (French Labour Code, Article R. 5122?1). Notably, the war in Ukraine had been recognised by the authorities as grounds for partial activity entitlement (Q&A AP/APLD, 16 March 2022).

Finally, under maritime labour law, the employer must organise the repatriation of a seafarer where the vessel heads towards an armed conflict zone that the seafarer refuses to enter (Transport Code, Article L. 5542?29).

In summary, employers cannot ignore the situation of employees stranded abroad as a result of exceptional events such as the current Middle East crisis. On the contrary, they must actively assess the situation and determine appropriate measures to ensure employee safety.

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