Working in France - End of Employment

REDUNDANCY 

Dismissal for personal reasons 

Individual dismissals are possible for personal reasons: 

• for disciplinary reasons (offence by the employee);
• for non-disciplinary reasons (professional incapacity, loss of confidence, refusal to make a substantial change to your employment contract for instance). 

It must be based on a real and serious cause. Which means that: 

• it must exist in actual fact; 
• it must be precise and verifiable; 
• it must be sufficiently important to justify the termination of your employment relationship. 

Some facts can never be real, serious reasons for dismissal. The following situations can never be used as a reason to make someone redundant: 

• origin, sex, moral standards, family situation or nationality; 
• ethnic group, race or religion; 
• state of health or disablement (except in a case of incapacity recorded by the industrial doctor); 
• pregnancy, maternity or adoption; 
• occupational accidents or illness; 
• participation in a legal strike; 
• opinions expressed in the context of employees’ freedom of expression; 
• political opinions or trade union membership and activity; 
• exercising of a right (e.g. you contact the labour inspectorate or industrial tribunal); 
• a prior sanction more than three years previously.

Prior interview 

The employer must invite you to a prior interview by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or personal delivery with signature of receipt. 

If the undertaking has no staff representative, a period of five working days must be respected before the prior interview and invitation (registered letter or personal delivery). 

In undertakings with staff representatives, there is no minimum legal period. 

The letter of invitation must state the purpose of the invitation, and the date, time and place of the meeting. 

It must also state:

• that is it possible for you to be assisted by a member of staff or external adviser if there are no staff representatives in the undertaking; 
• the town hall or the labour inspectorate where you can obtain a list of the advisers in the Department.

During this meeting, the employer must explain to you the reasons for the planned dismissal, and listen to your explanations. You are not obliged to attend the meeting, but your presence is desirable.

In the case of dismissal for disciplinary reasons, the employer has two months to invite you to this interview after having learnt of the facts of which you are accused. 

You must be notified of dismissal one clear day after: 

• the date of the meeting, for dismissal not based on disciplinary reasons; 
• the date of the meeting, for dismissal based on disciplinary reasons. 

The employer must do so by registered letter, with acknowledgement of receipt, which must state precisely the reason or reasons for dismissal.

Appeal 

Any dismissal not based on a real and serious cause is unfair and unjustified. You may appeal to the industrial tribunal. If you have at least two years’ seniority and if your undertaking has at least eleven employees, the judge may propose that you be re-employed, maintaining the benefits you have acquired. 

If your employer refuses to re-employ you, the judge may order him to pay you compensation equal to at least six months’ salary. 

If you have less than two years’ seniority or if your undertaking has less than eleven employees, the judge can only grant you compensation based on the damage suffered. 

Redundancy 

The legal definition of redundancy (Labour Code, Article L 321-1): 

• Redundancy is dismissal by the employer for one or more reasons not inherent to the employee, arising from the abolition or transformation of work or refusal to accept a substantial modification of the employment contract, for instance following economic problems or technological changes. 

Other legal situations: 

Voluntary departures and negotiated termination of contracts are similar to redundancies when the cause is economic.

Dismissals because of the completion of a site, which is normal according to the usual practices of a profession, are not regarded as redundancies.

Prior re-employment obligation: 

Before carrying out a redundancy, the employer is required to take every step to train and adapt the employees to the change in their employment. 

He must also look for re-employment in a job of the same category as that occupied by the employees, an equivalent job or, in the absence of this and with the express agreement of the employee, a job of a lower category. 

Re-employment must be planned within the undertaking or, where appropriate, in undertakings in the group.

Re-employment offers proposed to employees must be in writing and must be precise.

• N.B.:Collective bargaining and redundancies:
  LAW No 2003-6 of 3 January 2003 relaunching collective bargaining on redundancies, amending Law No 2002-73 of 17 January 2002 on social modernisation

RESIGNATION

You may resign without having to justify your decision. However, it must not be an unfair resignation, in other words it must not be done with the intention of harming the employer.

You may inform your employer verbally. However, it is preferable to send him a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt.

Compulsory resignation

If you resign because your employer is not giving you any work any more, because he has moved you or demoted you to encourage you to leave, state this clearly in your letter.

Some forms of resignation are considered by the courts to be similar to redundancy.

Resignation

When the resignation is the result of a freely-considered decision and a clear intention, it is definitive. If an employee resigns when in the grip of emotion, anger or irritation, the resignation may be reversible. In this case, if you act quickly, you may retract your resignation.

You cannot leave your job when you have told your employer you are resigning.

Local and professional customs, the collective agreement governing your work or your employment contract will provide for a period of notice.

If the collective agreement provides for notice, you may be absent during the period of notice to find a job (usually two hours per day).

Special cases:

If you fall ill during the notice period, it continues during your illness. If the notice is not finished on the day you are well again, it continues until the end of the envisaged notice period.

Source: www.Service-Public.fr

Last edited on:01/09/2003
Source: European Union
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