You hired your first employee in France with real excitement. The déclaration préalable à l’embauche (DPAE, the mandatory pre-hiring declaration filed with URSSAF, the social security collection agency) went through, the permanent contract (contrat à durée indéterminée, universally called a CDI) was signed, and your French company finally had someone on the ground while you manage it from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. Six months later, the picture has changed. Targets are missed, clients complain, or the role simply turns out to be unnecessary. Your instinct as a foreign founder is to end the relationship quickly, pay a decent severance, shake hands and move on. In France, that instinct is the single most expensive reflex you can have. France has no at-will employment. Ending a CDI outside the trial period requires a dismissal (licenciement) built on a real and serious cause, notified through a rigid procedure of invitation letter, prior meeting and reasoned notification, and priced in advance: notice period, statutory severance, paid leave and final filings. Skip one step or underpay one line and the labour court (conseil de prud’hommes, the elected judges who hear employment disputes) can add months of salary on top. This guide explains, for a foreign owner managing from abroad, how to dismiss a French employee lawfully, what it costs when done properly, and what a judge can award when it is not. It pairs naturally with our founder guide to setting up a company in France, from bank account and Kbis registration extract to VAT and the first hire, and completes the hiring story told in our guide to recruiting a first employee from abroad.

I. Dismiss on solid ground: the procedure foreign employers get wrong

A. Invite, meet, notify: three mandatory moves and their exact deadlines

Every dismissal for personal reasons, meaning any reason linked to the employee rather than to an economic redundancy, must be justified by what the statute calls a real and serious cause. Article L1232-1 of the French Labour Code states that “Tout licenciement pour motif personnel est motivé dans les conditions définies par le présent chapitre. Il est justifié par une cause réelle et sérieuse.” A cause is real when the facts are objectively established, precise and verifiable, not a vague feeling that the person is a poor fit. It is serious when those facts make continuing the employment relationship genuinely difficult. Poor documented performance can qualify. A personality clash described in two lines cannot. Before anything else, check whether the employee is still inside the trial period (période d’essai): during that initial window, either party can end the relationship without the full dismissal procedure, under the notice terms of the contract and the applicable sector agreement (convention collective, the industry-wide bargaining agreement that sets minimum employment terms on top of the statute). Once the trial period is over, the three-step procedure below is compulsory, and no severance cheque compensates for skipping it.

Step one is the invitation to a prior meeting (entretien préalable). Article L1232-2 of the Labour Code provides that “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.” The same article then sets a trap that catches many foreign-managed companies: “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.” Five full working days must separate presentation of the letter from the meeting, and French courts count this period strictly. In a widely commented ruling, the labour chamber of the Court of Cassation held that “l’entretien préalable ne peut avoir lieu moins de cinq jours ouvrables après la présentation de la lettre recommandée ou de la remise en main propre de la lettre de convocation”, and it quashed an appeal decision that had miscounted the period: “le délai de cinq jours avait commencé à courir le 13 janvier 2018, le jour suivant la présentation de la lettre recommandée, en sorte qu’à la date de l’entretien fixé au 24 janvier suivant, la salariée avait bénéficié d’un délai de cinq jours ouvrables pleins” (Cass. soc., 6 Sept. 2023, no. 22-11.661). The practical lesson for a founder abroad is simple. Instruct whoever handles the registered letter (lettre recommandée avec avis de réception) to record the exact date the letter is presented to the employee, count five full working days starting the next day, and only then hold the meeting. Sundays and public holidays do not count as working days, and a meeting held one day too early poisons everything that follows. Send the invitation from abroad if you must, but have someone reliable on the ground track the paper trail, because the paper trail is the procedure.

Step two is the meeting itself. The employee may come alone or accompanied by a staff member of the company or, in small companies with no staff representatives, by an outside adviser listed by the local administration. You or your representative state the reasons under consideration and listen to the explanations offered. Nothing is signed and no decision is announced at the meeting. Step three is the notification. Article L1232-6 of the Labour Code requires that “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.” The letter “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.” Two full working days after the scheduled meeting date, at the earliest. The administration publishes model letters the employer may use, and using them reduces drafting risk. One final warning about the letter: it frames the entire future lawsuit. Article L1235-2 of the Labour Code provides that “La lettre de licenciement, précisée le cas échéant par l’employeur, fixe les limites du litige en ce qui concerne les motifs de licenciement.” Whatever is not in the letter, as later clarified if needed, cannot be invoked before the judge. A foreign director who writes a two-sentence letter in English, or who adds the real reasons orally at the meeting but not on paper, has already lost the case that has not yet been filed. Write the letter in French, state precise dated facts, and keep a copy with proof of posting.

B. Prove the reason: what the labour court actually reads

French dismissal litigation is a battle of documents, and the foreign employer starts it at a disadvantage. You were not in the office, you did not witness the incidents, and your evidence arrives second-hand through a manager or an email thread. The good news is that employment evidence is free: the judge can consider any exhibit, from emails and messages to witness statements (attestations de témoins), appraisals, warnings and time records, and must assess their value and weight. In a published 2026 ruling, the Court of Cassation recalled that “aucune disposition du code du travail n’impose à l’employeur de mener une enquête interne en cas de signalement de harcèlement sexuel et qu’il lui appartenait en conséquence d’apprécier la valeur et la portée des pièces produites”, quashing an appeal court that had thrown out witness accounts for lack of a formal internal investigation (Cass. soc., 14 Jan. 2026, no. 24-19.544, published in the Bulletin). No statute forces you to run a full internal inquiry before dismissing, but the ruling cuts both ways. Because proof is free, the judge reads everything, including the employee’s exhibits. A dismissal file built on two vague emails will not survive against a file of payslips, clean appraisals and supportive colleagues produced by the other side.

Build the file before the invitation letter, not after it. For performance-based dismissals, gather dated objectives, written reviews showing the shortfall, the support and training offered, and the warnings sent. For misconduct, gather the precise facts with dates, places and witnesses, and check proportionality: a single minor lateness has never supported a dismissal, while repeated documented warnings can. Serious misconduct (faute grave) is a distinct legal category with immediate effect and no notice or severance, but it requires proof of a violation so serious that the employee cannot remain in the company even during the notice period, and the employer carries that burden. Do not label an ordinary performance case as serious misconduct to save money. Judges reclassify such dismissals routinely, and the savings evaporate into damages. Keep every original document, keep metadata, and never create an exhibit after the fact. A payslip edited to add a warning, or a witness statement signed by someone who saw nothing, turns a weak case into a lost one with aggravated damages. If the matter involves harassment or discrimination allegations in either direction, take advice before acting: dismissals connected to a protected ground can be declared null (licenciement nul), which reopens reinstatement and uncapped compensation, a risk no severance calculation can contain.

II. Price the dismissal before you sign it: severance, notice and court risk

A. What you owe on the way out even when everything goes well

A lawful, uncontested dismissal still costs money, and each line of the final settlement (solde de tout compte) follows its own rule. First, the notice period (préavis): unless there is serious misconduct, the employee either works the notice set by the contract and the sector agreement or receives the matching pay. Article L1234-5 of the Labour Code provides that “Lorsque le salarié n’exécute pas le préavis, il a droit, sauf s’il a commis une faute grave, à une indemnité compensatrice.” In practice, foreign owners often exempt the employee from working the notice while paying it in full, which is lawful and frequently wise when trust is gone, since it starts the separation immediately without reducing the cost. Second, the statutory severance (indemnité légale de licenciement). Article L1234-9 of the Labour Code grants it to any employee on a CDI who, when dismissed, shows “8 mois d’ancienneté ininterrompus au service du même employeur”, adding the words “sauf en cas de faute grave”, which means serious misconduct is the only standard case that removes it. The minimum amount is set by regulation: Article R1234-2 of the Labour Code states that “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.” Take a concrete example a foreign founder can verify on a spreadsheet. An employee with three years of service and a gross monthly reference salary of 3,000 euros receives at least 3 times one quarter of a month, meaning 2,250 euros. Always check the sector agreement and the contract first, because many provide higher severance than the statute, and the employee receives whichever is most favourable. Third, accrued paid leave (congés payés) not yet taken is paid as an allowance (indemnité compensatrice de congés payés), calculated on the same reference salary.

Then come the papers, which matter as much as the money. On the last day, the employer must hand over the work certificate (certificat de travail), the final settlement receipt and the employment-center attestation (attestation France Travail, issued for the body formerly called Pôle emploi) that lets the employee claim unemployment benefits. Payroll for the final month runs through the standard channel, the déclaration sociale nominative (DSN, the monthly electronic payroll and headcount return), and the final contributions are paid to URSSAF exactly like any other month. A foreign director sometimes discovers at this stage that the hiring itself was irregular. If the person is a non-European worker employed without the proper work authorization, the separation triggers a specific regime: the Court of Cassation recalled that “l’étranger non muni du titre l’autorisant à exercer une activité salariée en France a droit, au titre de la période d’emploi illicite, en cas de rupture de la relation de travail, à une indemnité forfaitaire égale à trois mois de salaire” (Cass. soc., 9 Apr. 2026, no. 25-12.603), applying Article L8252-2 of the Labour Code on the rights of foreign workers for the period of unlawful employment. Three months of salary as a floor, before any other claim, is an expensive way to learn that the residence permit (titre de séjour) and work authorization should have been checked on day one. Verify authorizations at hiring, keep copies, and diary their expiry dates.

B. What the labour court can add when the dismissal fails

When the employee challenges the dismissal before the labour court, the judge first asks whether the cause was real and serious. If the answer is no, the dismissal is called unfair (licenciement sans cause réelle et sérieuse) and the compensation follows a statutory scale known as the Macron scale (barème Macron). Article L1235-3 of the Labour Code provides that “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.” Reinstatement is proposed first but almost always refused on both sides, so the case turns on the scale, which runs from a fraction of a month to twenty months of gross salary depending on seniority and company size. The Court of Cassation spelled out the mechanics in 2025: “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”, adding that “Pour déterminer le montant de l’indemnité, le juge peut tenir compte, le cas échéant, des indemnités de licenciement versées à l’occasion de la rupture, à l’exception de l’indemnité de licenciement mentionnée à l’article L. 1234-9” (Cass. soc., 9 Apr. 2025, no. 24-13.958). In plain terms, the statutory severance already paid does not reduce the court award, while some other dismissal payments can be deducted. A founder who budgets only the severance line and ignores the scale above it is budgeting half the risk. Note that this scale applies to unfair dismissal as such. Dismissals declared null, for example after harassment, discrimination, maternity protection or the dismissal of a protected employee representative without administrative authorization, sit outside the scale with uncapped compensation, which is why the file review described above must come before the invitation letter, never after.

Two further courtroom realities complete the pricing. First, procedure has its own price tag. Even when the underlying reason is genuine, breaching the invitation deadlines, skipping the meeting or notifying too early is an irregularity the judge compensates separately. In the Mango case cited above, the appeal court had valued the procedural breach “correspondant à un mois de salaire”, and the Court of Cassation kept that one-month benchmark while correcting only the inflated global sum (Cass. soc., 6 Sept. 2023, no. 22-11.661). One month of salary for a miscounted delay is the going rate of carelessness, and it stacks on top of any unfair-dismissal award. Second, the case often settles at the conciliation hearing (audience de conciliation), the first stage before the labour court where the judges push both sides toward agreement. Article L1235-1 of the Labour Code provides that “En cas de litige, lors de la conciliation prévue à l’article L. 1411-1 , l’employeur et le salarié peuvent convenir ou le bureau de conciliation et d’orientation proposer d’y mettre un terme par accord”, with a statutory flat-rate benchmark based on seniority. Settlement at conciliation, properly documented with mutual waivers, regularly costs less than a full judgment plus appeal, and it closes the file the same day. A foreign owner who refuses any discussion on principle and litigates a weak file to the end usually pays the scale maximum, the procedural add-on and both sides’ lost time. Limitation periods also matter: employment claims must be brought within short statutory deadlines, so an employer who receives a summons should act within days, not months, and preserve every document from the invitation letter onward.

One last territorial point for founders operating in Paris and across Île-de-France. A dismissal dispute goes to the labour court of the place where the employee actually works, so a first hire based in Paris will bring the case before the Paris labour court even if the founder lives abroad and the parent company sits on another continent, with local waiting times, conciliation habits and hearing practices your representative must know. Conversely, if the employee is pregnant, on maternity leave, an elected staff representative, or has recently reported harassment or discrimination, stop the process before sending any letter and take advice first. These situations attract reinforced protection, administrative authorization requirements or nullity sanctions that override the standard procedure and pricing described above, and a single misstep there turns an ordinary separation into uncapped litigation.

Conclusion

Dismissing a first French employee from abroad is a controlled operation, not a conversation. Confirm the trial period is over, then run the three mandatory moves in order: a registered invitation stating its purpose, a real meeting held at least five full working days after presentation of the letter, and a reasoned French notification sent at least two working days after the scheduled meeting, with dated facts that will frame any future lawsuit. Build the documentary file before the first letter, matching each reason with exhibits the judge can verify, and never dress an ordinary performance case in the language of serious misconduct. Price the exit in full before signing: paid or worked notice, statutory severance from eight months of service at one quarter month per year, accrued leave, final payslip with DSN and URSSAF filings, and the three closing documents the employee needs for unemployment rights. Measure that certain cost against the courtroom alternative: the Macron scale up to twenty months for an unfair dismissal, an extra month for a procedural misstep, uncapped awards if the dismissal is null, and a three-month floor where a foreign worker lacked authorization. Foreign founders who respect this sequence dismiss lawfully, sleep well and keep their French company credible with banks, administrations and future hires. Those who improvise from another time zone pay for the lesson at the labour court, with interest.

Need a quick opinion on your case

If you run a French SAS or SARL from abroad and need to end a first employment contract, or if a dismissal letter, a labour court summons or a severance dispute has just landed on your desk, get advice before the next deadline expires. Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm, for clients in Paris and across Île-de-France as well as foreign founders managing a French company remotely.

Call 06 46 60 58 22 (Maître Reda Kohen).

Or use our contact page to send your contract, dismissal letter or court summons for review.