By Alexandra Thevenet
French employment law provides a very clear and highly regulated framework with regards to terminating an employee's contract.
This protects the workforce against licenciements sauvages (wild sackings). It defines standards of accountability both in terms of human resources and financial management as far as the employer is concerned.
There are two main reasons why an employee can have their contract terminated under the French employment law:
Licenciement économique: this is the equivalent of a lay-off. The employment of an employee is terminated for business reasons, based on economic forces beyond the employer's control.
Licenciement pour motif personnel: this is closer to "firing" in as much as it is based on reasons directly linked to the employee. Whereas firing implies failure to perform or misconduct, licenciement pour motif personnel does not necessarily have those negative implications with regards to the employee.
It could also be that the employee does not have the qualifications required by a recently introduce law to carry out a given activity, for example. Whereas the reason is directly linked to the employee, the employee has done nothing "wrong".
In both cases, the legal backbone that must always prevail is the idea of a cause réelle et sérieuse, ie. a real and serious reason behind the contract termination.
This concept was introduced into French employment law in 1973 whereby a judge could decide whether the given reason for terminating an employee's contract was indeed real and serious. Prior to this, that power solely belonged to employers.
Another important aspect of a licenciement, of whatever kind, is procedure.
In both cases, the French employment law has very strict steps to be adhered to (such as preliminary meetings, notifications by recorded delivery according to a given schedule, notice periods etc.) failing which the termination can be considered as wrongful.
In case of a dispute between the employer and the employee with regards to the termination of a work contract, the Code du Travail gives the relevant employment tribunal (Conseil des Prud'hommes) the power to decide:
1. If the relevant legal procedure was followed (in case of a breach in the procedure, the termination is wrongful).
2. If the reasons mentioned to justify the termination were real and serious, failing which the termination would be unfair.
In case of unfair and/or wrongful dismissal, the employee will be entitled to compensation, the level and nature of which will be established by the Tribunal des Prud'hommes further to legal proceedings being initiated.
It is also worth mentioning that in case of unfair dismissal, the law entitles the employee to return back to their job (along with compensation being awarded) if they so desire.
CRP: Eight-month deal with extra benefits and help finding new work
By Peter Hawkins
ANYONE made redundant on a licenciement économique basis must be invited to an interview by lettre recommende at least five working days in advance.
At the interview the employer must offer the worker a convention de reclassement personnalisé (CRP). (If they do not they must pay two month's of the employees salary to the Assedic - France’s unemployment service - as a form of punishment).
This is a deal with the Assedic that was set up to help workers made redundant for economic reasons, with special, higher, benefits and help to find work again quickly over eight months. It is open to all temporary and full time workers, resident in France, for companies with less than 1,000 staff or a company of any size in redressement or liquidation judiciaire.
The process is only slightly different if you have worked with the company for less than two years. An employee has 14 days to accept or refuse the CRP.
The absence of a response is taken as a refusal and refusal means you will start straight on to l'allocation d'aide au retour à l'emploi (ARE) benefits.
A worker should meet with an employee from the Assedic during the 14-day decision period to help them choose. Acceptance of the CRP is classed as a rupture d'un commun accord.
You get all the indemnites to which you are entitled (see below) except two months of the indemnisation preavis - this is paid to the Assedic. If you are getting more than two month’s preavis, your employer pays you the remainder.
Those who have been with the company for less than two years can still benefit from the CRP as long as they have worked long enough in different jobs to be entitled to ARE. They get the same immediate support and status, however their indemnity payments will be lower, as will their CRP benefits and the programme will only last seven months.
Status
Under the CRP the, now unemployed, worker is given the status of stagiaire de la formation professionnelle - effectively a work retraining programme.
Within eight days of starting under this status a person should have an initial appraisal interview. Within 30 days the Assedic should put together a personal dossier and action plan that the jobseeker must sign. One employee at the Assedic should be assigned to follow your progress and you will be given priority to find training courses and work experience.
Benefits on the CRP last for eight months. For the first three months you will receive 80% of your salairie de référence - a figure roughly based on your gross working salary. In the following five months this payment drops to 70%.
If you have not found a job after eight months your benefits will return to the normal allocation d'aide au retour à emploi (ARE).
During your time on the CRP, 3% of your payments will be taken out as pension payment (retraite complementaire). Under status stagiaire de la formation professionnelle you are covered by assurance maladie. The CRP will be stopped if you do not follow the plan agreed with the Assedic without good reason.
It can also be temporarily suspended if:
- you take up a professional activity (salaried or not) in France or abroad.
- you move abroad
- you look after a child
Some CRP benefits continue if you find a job with less than 110 hours per month and earn a monthly salary that is less than 70% of your former gross salary.
Compensation obligations
EMPLOYEES who have been on a full-time contract for at least a year benefit from a basic legal rate of compensation for being laid off - l'indemnité légale de licenciement.
However if your work contract or convention collective (rules governing your workplace) allow for more favourable terms then these are applied instead.
The indemnité légale consists of one fifth of your monthly wage for each year you worked at the company plus a further 2/15 of your monthly wage per each year beyond 10. On top of this there is compensation if the legal notice period is not worked and for any missed holiday.
The legal notice period is one month if you have worked less than two years and two months if you have worked two years or more. If the employee is asked not to work it then they should be compensated in full for the period they would have worked (indemnisation preavis).
For holiday compensation you should work out the number of holiday days you were entitled to that you have not taken, up to the end of the notice period. The compensation should be at least equivalent to the salary that would be due for the same number of worked days.
Note that there may be extra compensation if you are laid off in the context of a plan de sauvegarde de l'emploi, a procedure aimed at limiting the consequences of lay-offs.
It may also be possible for you to negotiate better compensation by engaging the help of a union or an avocat.
