Under the French Labour Code, employers have a safety obligation requiring them to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and protect the physical and mental health of their employees. Where they are made aware of facts that may amount to harassment, they must take immediate measures to bring the situation to an end. The Court of Cassation has now confirmed that an employer who responds to such an alert by launching an internal investigation has, by that fact, met its safety obligation, even where the investigation is brief or limited in scope.
In this case, an employee complained of moral harassment by another senior manager. The company conducted an internal investigation consisting of two interviews – one with the complainant and one with the alleged harasser – both led by the group’s general counsel. No third-party witnesses were heard, and there was no confrontation. The alleged harasser denied the conduct, and no harassment was established.
The Court of Cassation upheld the appeal court’s finding that there had been no breach. Once the employer had reacted to the alert by initiating an internal investigation, the lower court was entitled to conclude that the safety obligation had been complied with.
The ruling extends a recent line of case law confirming that the internal investigation is one tool among others to discharge the employer’s safety obligation, and that its absence, brevity or simplicity does not, on its own, constitute a breach (Cass. soc., 14 January 2026, no. 24-19.544 in the context of sexual harassment). What matters is the employer’s actual response to the alert.
