Capstan News
The key updates in employment law.
Practical insights from Capstan lawyers.
During sick leave, the employment contract is suspended and the employee is released from working : the employer may neither require nor even request work during that period. Since 2024, the Court of ...
Moral harassment (harcèlement moral) may result from management methods, not only from conduct aimed at one individual. Since 2009, the Court of Cassation has accepted that a manager’s methods – const...
A dismissal must be notified by a motivated registered letter. When the employer makes its decision to terminate an employment contract known either to the employee, or to others, before that letter i...
An employee’s financial liability towards their employer only arises in the event of wilful misconduct (faute lourde), meaning misconduct committed with the intention of harming the employer or the bu...
As a rule, a person seeking compensation must prove the harm they have suffered. The Court of Cassation has now confirmed that the same logic governs breaches of the GDPR. In this case, an employer ra...
A clause imposing a financial charge that deters an employee from resigning is unlawful : it amounts either to a prohibited financial penalty or to a restriction on the freedom to resign, which is val...
An employee who reports moral harassment cannot be dismissed on that ground ; a dismissal that refers to the report is void, and where the dismissal letter cites the report, that ground alone renders ...
An annual hours agreement (forfait annuel en heures) allows a predetermined number of foreseeable overtime hours to be built into an employee’s working time over the year. It is open only to managers ...
A day rate agreement (forfait en jours), under which an employee works a set number of days per year rather than counted hours, requires an underlying collective agreement. This scheme is subject to h...
A mutual termination (rupture conventionnelle) may validly be agreed while the contract is suspended for sickness, subject only to fraud or a defect in consent ; the employee remains free to accept or...
A resignation must reflect a clear and unequivocal intention to end the contract. Where an employee later challenges their resignation and asks for it to be reclassified as a dismissal without grounds...
Harassment cases call for a two-stage analysis : the employee puts forward facts suggesting harassment, after which it is for the employer to prove that the conduct does not amount to harassment and t...
Sexual harassment is defined by its effects, not by the identity of its target : the Labour Code prohibits repeated sexual or sexist comments or conduct that undermine a person’s dignity or create an ...
The right to one’s image, an aspect of the right to respect for private life protected by Article 9 of the Civil Code, covers the capture, storage, reproduction and use of a person’s image. The Court ...