Your first employee in France has stolen from the till, falsified an expense report, insulted a client, or refused outright to do the work. You are abroad, the payroll runs in a few days, and your instinct is to stop everything immediately: cut the pay, block the access, send a dismissal email. In French law, that instinct, acted on without the exact procedure, converts a strong misconduct case into a lost lawsuit. Serious misconduct — faute grave — is the one dismissal that deprives the employee of severance pay and notice, but it is also the one the labour court — the conseil de prud’hommes, the elected court for individual employment disputes — examines most strictly, because the price of the label is paid entirely by the employee.

This guide is written for the foreign founder, the non-resident director, and the overseas parent company whose first French hire has committed an act that may justify immediate removal. It explains the emergency tool (the conservatory suspension, mise à pied conservatoire), the two-month clock, the disciplinary interview, the proof of faute grave, and the cost of getting the label wrong. It complements our guide to hiring your first employee in France and our standard dismissal procedure for a first hire: read those for the ordinary personal dismissal, and read this one when the facts look serious enough to suspend first and dismiss without severance or notice. Every decisive rule below is quoted word for word from the official text.

Two warnings before you act. First, only faute grave justifies a conservatory suspension and removes severance and notice: ordinary underperformance, however disappointing, never does. Second, the court judges the label against one test — whether the act made it impossible to keep the employee in the company, even during the notice period — and any indulgence afterwards, such as rehiring the person or letting them work through the notice, destroys the label. Speed, writing, and consistency are everything when you manage from abroad.

I. How do you react within days when serious misconduct happens while you manage from abroad?

A. When can you suspend immediately with a mise à pied conservatoire?

The conservatory suspension is not a punishment. It is a protective measure: the employee stays home, unpaid, while you investigate and run the dismissal procedure. French case law reserves it strictly for serious misconduct. The Court of Cassation (Cour de cassation, the supreme court for civil and criminal matters) held on 12 March 2025, appeal No. 23-12.663: « Il résulte de ce texte que la faute grave, qui peut seule justifier une mise à pied conservatoire, est celle qui rend impossible le maintien du salarié dans l’entreprise. » It confirmed the formula on 1 October 2025, appeal No. 24-13.764: « La faute grave, qui peut seule justifier une mise à pied conservatoire, est celle qui rend impossible le maintien du salarié dans l’entreprise. » Theft, violence, proven fraud, or a deliberate refusal to perform the contractual duties can meet this test; persistent mediocrity, a single unproven allegation, or a conflict of personalities cannot.

The distinction with the disciplinary suspension (mise à pied disciplinaire) is vital and often missed by foreign managers. The disciplinary suspension is itself a sanction: it punishes, it must be proportionate, it is limited in duration by the collective agreement or by reasonableness, and wages lost under it are definitively lost only if the sanction stands. The conservatory suspension punishes nothing: it waits. If the dismissal for faute grave is upheld, the unpaid suspension period stands and no wages are due for it. If the court reclassifies the dismissal as an ordinary one, the employer must pay back the wages withheld during the suspension, plus severance, notice, and possibly damages. So the suspension letter must say expressly that the measure is conservatory (à titre conservatoire), taken pending the disciplinary procedure, and not a sanction. A letter that calls the measure a sanction, or that fixes a punitive duration, converts your protection into a punishment the court will review for proportionality.

From abroad, organise the suspension within hours through a person present in France. The president of a SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible company most foreign founders choose), the manager (gérant) of a SARL (société à responsabilité limitée), or a holder of a written delegation of disciplinary authority notifies the suspension by hand delivery against receipt or by registered letter, states the facts succinctly without concluding on the sanction, revokes premises and IT access against a signed inventory, and preserves the evidence: cash counts, logs, emails, witness accounts, client complaints. Continue paying nothing during the suspension but do not close the payroll file: social declarations to URSSAF (union de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales, the contribution collection agency) must reflect the suspension exactly, or the pay slip will contradict the procedure in court. Keep the suspension short — the time needed to hear the employee and decide, typically one to three weeks — because an endless unpaid suspension looks like a disguised dismissal without procedure.

Do not confuse suspension with the prior hiring duties: if the employee was never declared through the mandatory pre-hiring filing (DPAE, déclaration préalable à l’embauche), the misconduct case starts with a concealed-work exposure that dwarfs the severance at stake. Our first-hire guide details the DPAE and the written open-ended contract (CDI, contrat à durée indéterminée); the disciplinary file must show regular hiring first.

In Paris and Île-de-France, where many foreign companies place their first hire, secure evidence quickly: a Paris bailiff (commissaire de justice, the officer who draws up certified findings) can record IT logs, messages, or cash differences the same day, and the competent labour court will normally be the conseil de prud’hommes of the place of work. A same-day certified finding beats a three-week-old memory.

B. What two-month clock and disciplinary interview must you respect?

French disciplinary law runs on a short fuse. The statute provides: « Aucun fait fautif ne peut donner lieu à lui seul à l’engagement de poursuites disciplinaires au-delà d’un délai de deux mois à compter du jour où l’employeur en a eu connaissance, à moins que ce fait ait donné lieu dans le même délai à l’exercice de poursuites pénales. » Two months from the day the employer learned of the wrongful act — not from the act itself — to start disciplinary proceedings, unless criminal proceedings were brought within the same period. For a foreign director who learns facts through a monthly report, knowledge runs from when you were actually informed with sufficient precision, but do not test the margin: convene within days. An old fact known for months, suddenly recycled after a quarrel, is time-barred on its own; it can only support a recent fact as context, never as the ground.

Any sanction other than a verbal remark counts, and the procedure is mandatory. The statute provides: « Constitue une sanction toute mesure, autre que les observations verbales, prise par l’employeur à la suite d’un agissement du salarié considéré par l’employeur comme fautif, que cette mesure soit de nature à affecter immédiatement ou non la présence du salarié dans l’entreprise, sa fonction, sa carrière ou sa rémunération. » Dismissal for misconduct is the heaviest sanction, so the full interview procedure applies. The statute provides: « Lorsque l’employeur envisage de prendre une sanction, il convoque le salarié en lui précisant l’objet de la convocation, sauf si la sanction envisagée est un avertissement ou une sanction de même nature n’ayant pas d’incidence, immédiate ou non, sur la présence dans l’entreprise, la fonction, la carrière ou la rémunération du salarié. Lors de son audition, le salarié peut se faire assister par une personne de son choix appartenant au personnel de l’entreprise. Au cours de l’entretien, l’employeur indique le motif de la sanction envisagée et recueille les explications du salarié. La sanction ne peut intervenir moins de deux jours ouvrables, ni plus d’un mois après le jour fixé pour l’entretien. Elle est motivée et notifiée à l’intéressé. » Summons stating the purpose, employee heard with a chosen colleague, reasons explained, explanations collected, then a reasoned decision notified no earlier than two working days and no later than one month after the scheduled interview date.

With a single employee there is no colleague to assist, and the dismissal track adds its own safeguards: the summons to the prior meeting (entretien préalable) must mention the right to an outside staff adviser (conseiller du salarié) with the address where the list is held. The dismissal statutes apply in parallel: « Tout licenciement pour motif personnel est motivé dans les conditions définies par le présent chapitre. Il est justifié par une cause réelle et sérieuse. » And the summons rule: « L’employeur qui envisage de licencier un salarié le convoque, avant toute décision, à un entretien préalable. La convocation est effectuée par lettre recommandée ou par lettre remise en main propre contre décharge. Cette lettre indique l’objet de la convocation. L’entretien préalable ne peut avoir lieu moins de cinq jours ouvrables après la présentation de la lettre recommandée ou la remise en main propre de la lettre de convocation. » In disciplinary dismissals, combine both regimes in one letter: state the alleged misconduct, the conservatory suspension already notified, the meeting date at least five working days after presentation, and the adviser paragraph. Then notify by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt: « Lorsque l’employeur décide de licencier un salarié, il lui notifie sa décision par lettre recommandée avec avis de réception. Cette lettre comporte l’énoncé du ou des motifs invoqués par l’employeur. Elle ne peut être expédiée moins de deux jours ouvrables après la date prévue de l’entretien préalable au licenciement auquel le salarié a été convoqué. » Respect the one-month disciplinary deadline too: in practice, notify within days after the meeting, never beyond one month from the interview date.

Three faults destroy misconduct cases run from abroad. First, the double punishment: a written warning already given for the same facts bars a later dismissal for those facts — sanction once, and choose. Second, the slow circuit: a file that waits six weeks for headquarters’ validation breaches the one-month notification limit or weakens the impossibility argument — if the employee could stay six weeks, the presence was evidently possible. Third, the email dismissal: only the registered letter counts, with every grievance inside, because the letter sets the limits of the dispute. Delegate signature authority in France before the crisis, not during it.

II. How do you prove faute grave and price the exit if the court disagrees?

A. What facts make serious misconduct that bars severance and notice?

Faute grave is not a feeling of betrayal; it is a violation of contractual duties so important that the employee cannot remain in the company, even for the notice period. The 12 March 2025 ruling illustrates the test brutally: the court of appeal had approved a faute grave dismissal for stubborn refusal to perform the contractual work and a violent gesture toward a superior, finding conduct serious enough to prevent continuing the contract even during notice. Yet the same employer had signed, immediately after the dismissal, a settlement undertaking to rehire the worker subject only to a fitness opinion. The Court of Cassation quashed: having found that the company had agreed to take the employee back, the judges could not maintain that keeping him was impossible. The lesson, stated in the ruling’s reasoning, is that the employer’s own later conduct is evidence: rehire, re-engagement, or even letting the employee work out a notice period contradicts the impossibility claim. If you label the facts faute grave, act like it: suspend, do not schedule future shifts, do not promise re-employment, do not pay a notice indemnity.

The 1 October 2025 ruling polices the boundary from the other side: the appeal court had found the established grievance — personal expenses charged to the company, breaking the bond of trust — serious enough to justify ending the contract, but, given long seniority and a clean record, not a violation important enough to make keeping the employee impossible during the notice period. It approved the faute grave label anyway, and the Court of Cassation quashed again: where the facts justify termination but not impossibility of remaining through notice, the dismissal stands as an ordinary one, with notice, severance, and the scale — not as faute grave. For a foreign employer, the matrix is therefore three-tiered. Ordinary fault: dismissal with severance and notice. Serious misconduct: dismissal with neither, provided impossibility is proven and lived. Gross misconduct (faute lourde, intent to harm the employer): dismissal with neither, plus potential damages against the employee — a label to plead only with proof of intent, almost never on a first dispute.

Build the proof as a foreign file that a French judge can read. The burden rule provides: « A défaut d’accord, le juge, à qui il appartient d’apprécier la régularité de la procédure suivie et le caractère réel et sérieux des motifs invoqués par l’employeur, forme sa conviction au vu des éléments fournis par les parties après avoir ordonné, au besoin, toutes les mesures d’instruction qu’il estime utiles. Il justifie dans le jugement qu’il prononce le montant des indemnités qu’il octroie. Si un doute subsiste, il profite au salarié. » Any remaining doubt benefits the employee, so bring documents, not adjectives: dated cash counts, bank records, signed inventories, IT logs with certified findings, the exact expense claims with receipts, the client’s written complaint, the prior job description and written instructions, the pay slips showing the function. Translate key exhibits into French: the conseil de prud’hommes works in French, and an English-only file reads as an unprepared file.

The financial upside of a proven faute grave is mechanical. Notice pay disappears: « Lorsque le licenciement n’est pas motivé par une faute grave, le salarié a droit : 1° S’il justifie chez le même employeur d’une ancienneté de services continus inférieure à six mois, à un préavis dont la durée est déterminée par la loi, la convention ou l’accord collectif de travail ou, à défaut, par les usages pratiqués dans la localité et la profession ; 2° S’il justifie chez le même employeur d’une ancienneté de services continus comprise entre six mois et moins de deux ans, à un préavis d’un mois ; 3° S’il justifie chez le même employeur d’une ancienneté de services continus d’au moins deux ans, à un préavis de deux mois. » Read a contrario: with faute grave, no notice right. No compensatory notice indemnity either: « Lorsque le salarié n’exécute pas le préavis, il a droit, sauf s’il a commis une faute grave, à une indemnité compensatrice. » And no statutory severance: « Le salarié titulaire d’un contrat de travail à durée indéterminée, licencié alors qu’il compte 8 mois d’ancienneté ininterrompus au service du même employeur, a droit, sauf en cas de faute grave, à une indemnité de licenciement. » Paid-leave balances remain due in all cases, as do the final documents: final pay slip (solde de tout compte), employment certificate (certificat de travail), and the France Travail unemployment attestation (for the former Pôle emploi, now France Travail). Withhold only what the label allows; withhold one euro too much and the dispute turns on the withholding.

B. What does reclassification cost under the Macron scale if the court disagrees?

When the court rejects faute grave but accepts that the facts justified ending the contract, it reclassifies: ordinary dismissal without real-and-serious-cause analysis on the label, but with all ordinary consequences. The employer then owes, retroactively: the wages withheld during the conservatory suspension, the notice or its indemnity, the statutory severance floored by regulation — « L’indemnité de licenciement ne peut être inférieure aux montants suivants : 1° Un quart de mois de salaire par année d’ancienneté pour les années jusqu’à dix ans ; 2° Un tiers de mois de salaire par année d’ancienneté pour les années à partir de dix ans. » — plus damages for dismissal without real and serious cause priced by the Macron scale (barème Macron). The scale provision states: « Si le licenciement d’un salarié survient pour une cause qui n’est pas réelle et sérieuse, le juge peut proposer la réintégration du salarié dans l’entreprise, avec maintien de ses avantages acquis. Si l’une ou l’autre des parties refuse cette réintégration, le juge octroie au salarié une indemnité à la charge de l’employeur, dont le montant est compris entre les montants minimaux et maximaux fixés dans le tableau ci-dessous. » For short seniority the amounts are assessable: at one full year, one month minimum and two months maximum; at two years, two months minimum and three and a half months maximum; with lower minima in companies usually employing fewer than eleven employees — the typical foreign subsidiary with a single hire. Procedural breaches add up to one month’s salary even where the cause stands.

Put numbers on the gamble before choosing the label. Take a first hire with fourteen months of seniority paid 3,800 euros gross. A proven faute grave costs roughly the paid-leave balance plus file costs. A reclassified dismissal costs the suspension wages (say three weeks, about 2,800 euros), one month’s notice (3,800 euros), the severance floor (about a quarter-month prorated, around 1,100 euros), leave balances, plus scale damages of one to two months (3,800 to 7,600 euros) — a swing of roughly 12,000 to 17,000 euros before counsel fees and unemployment-benefit reimbursement. With thin proof, the rational foreign employer often prefers the ordinary dismissal with severance and notice, or a negotiated mutual separation (rupture conventionnelle), over a faute grave label that doubles the exposure if lost. The label is a weapon for documented cases, not a discount for weak ones.

Close every scenario with identical formalities handled from France: deliver the final pay slip, the certificate, and the France Travail attestation on departure day; pay by transfer with a detailed statement; close payroll with URSSAF; retrieve equipment against inventory; update the single personnel register (registre unique du personnel). Mandate French counsel with settlement authority at the conciliation hearing before the conseil de prud’hommes: most reclassification cases settle there against a lump sum set by decree according to seniority, and the signed minutes waive all termination claims. An absent foreign employer that ignores the summons lets a manageable reclassification become a full-hearing judgment a year later, with interest, costs, and a published decision.

Conclusion

Serious misconduct by a first French hire rewards fast, written, consistent action and punishes improvisation. Suspend conservatory in writing the day you have the facts, convene within the two-month limit, hear the employee through a mandated representative in France, notify by registered letter within the month, and plead faute grave only where the act truly made keeping the employee impossible — even through notice — and your later conduct proves it. Price the alternative before signing: an ordinary dismissal with severance and notice, or a homologated mutual separation, often costs less than a lost faute grave label with suspension wages, notice, severance, and scale damages on top. The companies that win these cases from abroad are not those with the strongest anger; they are those with the fastest delegation, the shortest suspension, and the thickest French-language file.

Need a quick opinion on your case?

If your employee in France has committed theft, fraud, violence, or a deliberate refusal to work, if you hesitate between conservatory suspension, ordinary dismissal, and mutual separation, or if a faute grave letter is already contested, our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via our contact page. We receive in Paris and advise across Île-de-France and throughout France, in English, and we handle the suspension letters, disciplinary files, and labour court cases described in this guide.