You hired your first employee in France with enthusiasm, you manage the company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and a few months later the working relationship is clearly not functioning. The instinct of many foreign founders is to act the way they would at home: announce the departure, pay one extra month and move on. In France, that shortcut is one of the most expensive mistakes a young company can make. Dismissing an employee on an open-ended contract, the CDI (contrat à durée indéterminée), requires a strict procedure written into the Labour Code, and every skipped step has a price tag attached by the labour court, the conseil de prud’hommes. The difficulty is real when you live abroad: registered letters must be sent in France, meetings must be held in person, and deadlines run in French working days whether you are available or not. This article explains the two things a foreign employer must master. First, the dismissal procedure itself, the preliminary meeting and the notification letter, which you must follow to the letter even from another country. Second, the true cost of the separation, notice, statutory severance and final paperwork, and the financial risk you run before the labour court if the dismissal is flawed. If your employee is still inside the trial period, the periode d’essai, different and much lighter rules apply, as explained in our guide to signing your first French employment contract, filing the DPAE and managing the trial period from abroad. What follows concerns the dismissal of an employee whose contract has been confirmed, for personal reasons such as poor performance or loss of confidence, which is the situation most foreign founders face first.
I. Follow the French dismissal procedure to the letter, even from another country
French law does not let an employer dismiss at will. For a personal dismissal, a licenciement pour motif personnel, the Labour Code imposes a fixed sequence: invite the employee to a preliminary meeting, hold that meeting, wait, then notify the dismissal by a reasoned letter. An employee with less than one year of service benefits from the same procedure as a senior employee. There is no small employer exemption and no short service exemption. A foreign founder who lives abroad must organise each step on French soil, generally through a person holding a written proxy, because the formalities assume a registered letter posted in France and a face to face meeting. The two stages below describe exactly what to do and what the courts sanction.
A. Invite the employee to a preliminary meeting and hold it properly from abroad
Everything starts with a formal invitation. The statute provides: “L’employeur qui envisage de licencier un salarié le convoque, avant toute décision, à un entretien préalable.” The summons must be sent by registered letter, or handed over in person against a signed receipt, and it must state its purpose. The same article adds a waiting period in these terms: “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.” The official text is Article L1232-2 of the Labour Code. Working days, jours ouvrables, run from Monday to Saturday, excluding Sundays and French public holidays, so five working days means in practice more than a calendar week, and a founder living abroad must count these days on the French calendar, not on the calendar of the country of residence.
Three practical points matter enormously for an employer who is not in France. First, no decision may be taken before the meeting. The invitation must present the meeting as a discussion about a possible dismissal, not as the announcement of a dismissal already decided. A letter that reads as a fait accompli taints the whole procedure, and the labour court can penalise that irregularity even when the underlying reason for dismissal was genuine. Second, the person who conducts the meeting must have authority to hire and fire. A founder living in another country commonly gives a written proxy, a power of attorney, to a trusted person in France, a local manager, an accountant or counsel, who sends the letter and conducts the meeting. What counts is that the employee faces someone entitled to speak for the employer, and that every document proves it. Third, the letter should be sent by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt, lettre recommandée avec avis de réception, posted in France, because the five day period runs from presentation of that letter. Keep the postal receipts, the acknowledgment slip and a copy of everything. From abroad, proof is your only presence in the room.
The employee has the right to be assisted at the meeting, and the invitation letter must say so. The law states: “Lors de son audition, le salarié peut se faire assister par une personne de son choix appartenant au personnel de l’entreprise.” Where the company has no staff representative body, which is always the case for a young foreign owned company with a single employee, the employee may also bring an outside adviser: “Lorsqu’il n’y a pas d’institutions représentatives du personnel dans l’entreprise, le salarié peut se faire assister soit par une personne de son choix appartenant au personnel de l’entreprise, soit par un conseiller du salarié choisi sur une liste dressée par l’autorité administrative.” That is Article L1232-4 of the Labour Code. The conseiller du salarié is an independent adviser listed by the DREETS, the regional directorate for the economy, employment, work and solidarity, the French regional labour authority. Your invitation letter must mention this possibility and give the address of the offices where the list is available. Omitting that mention is a procedural fault in itself, and it is one of the most frequent faults in small companies that copy a foreign template letter.
At the meeting itself, the employer’s representative states the reasons envisaged and listens to the employee’s explanations. Nothing must be decided or announced on the spot. Write short minutes of what was said, have them signed if possible, and keep them with the file. If the employee does not attend, the procedure continues without them, but keep proof that the meeting was properly convened and that the waiting period was respected. Illness or paid leave does not freeze the procedure automatically, although dismissing during a sick leave period calls for professional advice because additional protections may apply. The meeting is also the moment to check a fundamental question: is dismissal really the right tool, or would a negotiated mutual separation, the rupture conventionnelle, a mutual termination agreement subject to approval by the labour authority, suit both sides better. That alternative requires the genuine consent of the employee and an administrative approval, so it cannot be imposed, but it deserves consideration before the dismissal letter goes out, because once the letter is sent, the dispute is framed by its wording, as the next section explains.
B. Notify the dismissal in a precise written letter that frames the entire dispute
After the meeting, the employer must wait before sending the dismissal letter. The law requires that “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.” The letter must be sent by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt and, crucially, “Cette lettre comporte l’énoncé du ou des motifs invoqués par l’employeur.” Those are the terms of Article L1232-6 of the Labour Code, which adds that a ministerial order sets standard templates the employer may use. For a founder abroad, the practical lesson is simple: use the official French templates or have the letter drafted under French law, never translate a letter drafted under American, British or Emirati law. The dismissal letter is not correspondence, it is the legal boundary of the future court case.
That boundary effect is stated in Article L1235-2 of the Labour Code: “La lettre de licenciement, précisée le cas échéant par l’employeur, fixe les limites du litige en ce qui concerne les motifs de licenciement.” In plain terms, the labour court judges the dismissal on the reasons written in the letter, and reasons added later in court carry no weight. The Court of Cassation, the Cour de cassation, France’s supreme court for labour disputes, enforces this strictly. In a published Social Chamber judgment of 23 October 2024, appeal number 22-22.206, it held: “Il résulte de ces textes que la lettre de licenciement fixe les limites du litige en ce qui concerne les griefs articulés à l’encontre du salarié et que le juge a l’obligation d’examiner l’ensemble des griefs invoqués dans la lettre de licenciement.” The full judgment is available on the official website of the Court here: Cass. soc., 23 October 2024, No 22-22.206. The consequence for the drafter is direct: every grievance must be stated in the letter with concrete facts, dates, figures and examples, because a vague formula such as loss of confidence or professional inadequacy, with no illustration, invites the court to find that the employee could not defend themselves and that the reason is not established.
The law offers a safety valve. After notification, the reasons stated in the letter may be clarified, either on the employer’s own initiative or at the employee’s request, within the time limit fixed by regulation. That clarification procedure lets an employer sharpen wording that was too brief or too general, but it does not allow inventing new reasons after the fact. Use it whenever the employee asks for details, because refusing to clarify looks evasive before the court. Conversely, a letter whose reasoning is merely thin is not automatically fatal. The same Article L1235-2 of the Labour Code provides that “l’irrégularité que constitue une insuffisance de motivation de la lettre de licenciement ne prive pas, à elle seule, le licenciement de cause réelle et sérieuse et ouvre droit à une indemnité qui ne peut excéder un mois de salaire.” A poorly reasoned letter therefore costs at most one month of salary when the underlying reason is genuine, whereas a dismissal with no genuine and serious cause, sans cause réelle et sérieuse, falls under the much heavier compensation scale examined in the second part. The distinction matters for budgeting the risk: form defects are capped, substance defects are not. And one category deserves a warning. Serious misconduct, faute grave, which deprives the employee of severance and notice, requires misconduct of such gravity that the employee cannot remain in the company even during the notice period, and it must be acted upon swiftly, in practice with an immediate protective suspension. A founder who labels ordinary underperformance as serious misconduct to save money almost always loses that argument and pays the full scale instead.
II. Pay the true price of the separation and measure the labour court risk
A dismissal that is procedurally clean still costs money: notice or its cash equivalent, statutory severance from eight months of service, paid leave balance and three mandatory final documents. A dismissal that is flawed costs significantly more, under a statutory compensation scale that the Court of Cassation applies with rigour. For a company run from abroad, both the payments and the paperwork must be organised through French channels, payroll provider, bank transfer in euros and tracked mail, because the employee’s rights run in France regardless of where the founder sits. The general compliance calendar of a French company, social filings, tax deadlines and annual meetings, is described in our guide to the annual legal calendar of a French company managed from abroad, and the end of contract paperwork below fits into that same discipline.
A. Notice period, statutory severance and the final documents delivered at departure
Unless the dismissal is for serious misconduct, the employee is entitled to a notice period, the préavis, whose length is set by the employment contract or, more often, by the applicable collective bargaining agreement, the convention collective. Many foreign founders discover the collective agreement at this stage, although it has applied since the first day of employment and often extends notice and severance beyond the legal minimum. Identify the agreement, read its termination chapter and apply whichever is more favourable to the employee, because the court will. If the employer releases the employee from working the notice, a compensatory payment is due, and the statute confirms its cumulative nature: “L’indemnité compensatrice de préavis se cumule avec l’indemnité de licenciement et avec l’indemnité prévue à l’article L. 1235-2” That is Article L1234-5 of the Labour Code. Releasing the employee sounds generous, but it is paid leave in cash: salary and benefits continue fictitiously until the end of the notice, including holiday accrual. Budget it before announcing anything.
Statutory severance, the indemnité légale de licenciement, is due to any employee on an open-ended contract dismissed with at least eight months of uninterrupted service with the same employer, except in case of serious misconduct. The rule is stated as follows: “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.” That is Article L1234-9 of the Labour Code. The minimum rates are fixed by regulation: “Un quart de mois de salaire par année d’ancienneté pour les années jusqu’à dix ans” and “Un tiers de mois de salaire par année d’ancienneté pour les années à partir de dix ans.” That is Article R1234-2 of the Labour Code. The reference salary is the gross average of the last twelve or three months, whichever is more favourable. A concrete example helps: an employee with eighteen months of service and a gross monthly average of 3,000 euros receives at least one quarter of a month per year of service, which is 750 euros per year, or 1,125 euros. Small amounts for short service, but they add to notice compensation, to the balance of unused paid leave, which is always paid out, and to any more generous conventional severance. Check the collective agreement first, compute second, announce last.
At departure, three documents must be delivered to the employee, and a founder abroad should organise their handover through the payroll provider or the proxy in France. The work certificate is required by Article L1234-19 of the Labour Code: “A l’expiration du contrat de travail, l’employeur délivre au salarié un certificat dont le contenu est déterminé par voie réglementaire.” The final pay statement, the solde de tout compte, lists every sum paid at termination, and the statute gives it a special legal force: “Le solde de tout compte, établi par l’employeur et dont le salarié lui donne reçu, fait l’inventaire des sommes versées au salarié lors de la rupture du contrat de travail. Le reçu pour solde de tout compte peut être dénoncé dans les six mois qui suivent sa signature, délai au-delà duquel il devient libératoire pour l’employeur pour les sommes qui y sont mentionnées.” That is Article L1234-20 of the Labour Code. Have the employee sign the receipt, keep a copy and calendar the six month challenge period. The third document is the employment centre certificate, the attestation France Travail, formerly attestation Pôle emploi, which the employee needs to claim unemployment benefits. It is generated through French payroll software and must be handed over at the end of the contract, without waiting to be asked. Late or missing documents expose the employer to court ordered penalties, and for a company with no office in France, the practical chain is straightforward: instruct the payroll provider early, fund the euro payments before the departure date and send every document by tracked mail while keeping copies of everything. Our companion article on facing a URSSAF audit of your French company while living abroad shows the same logic applied to social security controls: the administration and the courts judge French paperwork, not foreign intentions.
B. What a flawed dismissal costs before the French labour court
An employee who wants to challenge the dismissal must act within a short limitation period. The rule is: “Toute action portant sur la rupture du contrat de travail se prescrit par douze mois à compter de la notification de la rupture.” That is Article L1471-1 of the Labour Code. In practice, a founder who has dismissed cleanly should keep the complete file, invitation, receipts, minutes, letter, pay slips and proof of payments, for well over a year, because a claim can arrive in the twelfth month. The claim goes to the labour court, the conseil de prud’hommes, the specialised first instance court for employment disputes, with appeal to the cour d’appel and possible review by the Social Chamber of the Court of Cassation. Distance does not protect the company: a French company is sued in France, and the founder litigates through French counsel.
If the court finds the dismissal without genuine and serious cause, compensation follows the statutory scale known as the Macron scale, the barème Macron. The statute provides: “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.” That is Article L1235-3 of the Labour Code, which then sets minimum and maximum awards in months of gross salary according to seniority. Reinstatement is almost always refused by one side, so the scale governs. For very short service the ceiling is low, one month of salary where seniority is below one full year, rising to two months at one year of service, but the floor also exists and the court has no power to go below or above the table for an ordinary unfair dismissal. The Court of Cassation polices the scale firmly. In a leading published judgment of 11 May 2022, appeal number 21-14.490, decided by the full Social Chamber, it recalled that “si le licenciement d’un salarié survient pour une cause qui n’est pas réelle et sérieuse, le juge octroie au salarié une indemnité à la charge de l’employeur, dont le montant est compris entre des montants minimaux et maximaux fixés par ce texte.” The court quashed an appeal decision that had exceeded the ceiling to reflect the employee’s real loss, holding that “alors qu’il lui appartenait seulement d’apprécier la situation concrète de la salariée pour déterminer le montant de l’indemnité due entre les montants minimaux et maximaux déterminés par l’article L. 1235-3 du code du travail, la cour d’appel a violé les textes susvisés.” The judgment is published here: Cass. soc., 11 May 2022, No 21-14.490. For the founder, the message is twofold. The scale caps the worst case for an ordinary unfair dismissal, which makes early legal budgeting possible, but it does not cap everything: procedural breaches, missing invitation, late letter and unpaid severance each add their own penalties, and discrimination or harassment claims fall outside the scale entirely.
Purely procedural faults, where the reason was genuine but the formalities were breached, carry their own capped penalty of up to one month of salary, as seen above with insufficient reasoning. Dismissing without any preliminary meeting, sending the letter too early or forgetting the assistance notice typically costs up to that additional month. These amounts look modest, yet they stack: a rushed dismissal of a recently confirmed first employee can easily total the notice balance, the severance, one month for the procedural fault and an award within the scale, plus reimbursement of unemployment benefits to the state in some cases. Against that arithmetic, the cost of doing things properly, a compliant letter, a mandated representative in France and a payroll provider instructed on time, is minor. One final caution for founders tempted by speed: backdating documents, fabricating meeting minutes or pressuring the employee to resign instead of dismissing them creates risks far beyond the scale, including criminal exposure, and destroys any credibility before the court. A calm, documented, step by step dismissal is not only legally required, it is the cheapest option.
Conclusion
Dismissing your first French employee from abroad is manageable, but only as a disciplined French procedure, not as a transatlantic email. Invite the employee to a preliminary meeting with five working days notice and a proper assistance mention, hold the meeting through an authorised representative in France, wait two working days, then notify the dismissal by registered letter stating precise facts that will frame the whole dispute. Pay the notice or its cash equivalent, compute the statutory severance from eight months of service at one quarter of a month per year, check the collective agreement for better terms, settle unused leave and deliver the work certificate, the final pay statement and the France Travail certificate on time. Keep every receipt for at least twelve months, because that is the employee’s deadline to sue. A dismissal conducted this way either stands up before the labour court or, at worst, exposes the company to a predictable and capped cost, whereas a rushed do it yourself separation turns a small severance into a stacked bill of penalties. For a foreign founder building in France, that discipline is part of the investment, and general guidance for each stage of the employer’s journey is available in our founders guide to setting up a company in France, from the bank account and the Kbis to VAT and the first hire.