FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Laetitia Tombarello and Audrey Demourgues, Bredin Prat
7. Termination 7.1 Grounds for Termination
l’emploi ) with the employee representatives, providing for social measures to the benefit of the redundant employees (relating to redeployment leave, training, the prevention of psychosocial risks, additional sever - ance indemnities, etc). The Labour Inspection is also closely involved in these projects and has to approve the social plan before it can be implemented. 7.2 Notice Periods Notice periods are set by industry-level collective bar - gaining agreements and the Labour Code. They gen - erally last between one and three months, depending on the employee’s status. During the notice period, employees must receive their salary as usual, even if the company exempts them from working during the notice. The contract may be terminated without notice (or payment of notice) in the event of serious miscon - duct ( faute grave ) or gross negligence ( faute lourde ). 7.3 Dismissal for (Serious) Cause There is no at-will employment in France. If an employ - er intends to dismiss an employee, it must at least have cause (ie, a “real and serious reason”). Process to Dismiss To dismiss an employee, a specific process must be followed: • the employee must be invited to a pre-dismissal meeting, which must not be held earlier than five working days following the invitation’s delivery (or the first attempt to deliver it); • during the pre-dismissal meeting, the employer will explain the reasons for the proposed dismissal and give the employee an opportunity to respond; • if the employer still wishes to dismiss the employee after the pre-dismissal meeting, it can notify the employee of their termination, no earlier than two working days after the pre-dismissal meeting; and • this termination letter must explicitly mention the grounds for dismissal. The final decision to dismiss must not be notified before the two working days have elapsed. Any dis - missal decided in advance of this is deemed not to have a real and serious reason, which entitles the former employee to damages, usually calculated by reference to their salary and length of service.
To terminate an employment contract, the employer must be able to justify its decision by reference to “real and serious” reasons. Such reasons should be docu - mented and based on objective elements (eg, not get - ting along with a colleague would not be sufficient). Personal or Economic Reasons There are two types of reasons for dismissal: • “personal reasons” are those reasons that are directly related to the employee’s personal situa - tion, such as misconduct (wilful or not), refusal to follow orders, lack of competence, etc; and • “economic reasons” are reasons that are not related to employees themselves, but rather to economic circumstances, such as economic dif - ficulties, decrease of revenues or orders, techno - logical evolutions, reorganisation of the company necessary to maintain its competitiveness, closing down of a company/site, etc. Procedures to dismiss vary depending on the reason for the dismissal. In particular, a dismissal for econom - ic reasons and a dismissal of employee representa - tives (who are protected) may require the involvement of the works council. Specific obligations also apply to the dismissal of employees who have been declared unfit for work. Collective Redundancies If an employer wishes to dismiss more than one employee for economic reasons, specific collective redundancy provisions may be triggered. The proce - dures are complex and vary depending on whether or not the company employs more than 50 employees, and on the number of proposed redundancies. In all procedures, the employer must inform and consult the works council, and send documentation related to the collective redundancy to the Labour Inspection. In addition, within companies employing at least 50 employees, if more than ten redundan - cies are planned over the same month, the employer will have to follow a specific consultation procedure and negotiate a “social plan” ( plan de sauvegarde de
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