You hired your first employee in France from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, the collaboration ended badly, and now a registered letter arrives at the company’s siège, the registered office: the dismissed employee has seized the conseil de prud’hommes, the French labour court, and you are summoned to a conciliation hearing in a few weeks. From another country, the temptation is to treat this as a minor administrative summons, to send the accountant, or to ignore it until the merits hearing months later. Each of these reflexes can cost you the case before it starts, because the labour court can rule against an absent employer at the very first hearing, and because every euro of exposure follows a statutory scale you can compute today.

French employment disputes run in two phases that foreign founders must keep separate. First comes conciliation before the bureau de conciliation et d’orientation, the conciliation and orientation board, known as the BCO, where a settlement can close the file in weeks. If conciliation fails, the case moves to the bureau de jugement, the judgment board, six to eight months later, where the judges apply strict rules on dismissal procedure and capped damages. The summons you received states the council, the section, the hearing date and the employee’s claims: read as an employer, it is a deadline notice, a price list and a settlement invitation in one envelope.

This guide walks through the defence in practical order for a foreign-owned French company: what the summons means and which hearing you face, what losing actually costs under the statutory scale and its exceptions, how to organise representation and evidence from abroad so you never lose by default, and how to use conciliation and limitation periods to close the dispute at the right price. Every decisive rule below is tied to the exact statute or court decision that creates it. Readers who want the dismissal procedure itself, done before any dispute, will find it in our companion guide Your First French Hire Is Not Working Out and You Live Abroad: End the Trial, Dismiss Lawfully, Pay Severance and Prove Everything.

I. What summons did you receive, and what does each stage of the case risk?

A. Which court called you, and what happens at the conciliation hearing?

The conseil de prud’hommes is the court for individual employment disputes, composed of lay judges split evenly between employer and employee representatives. Article L1411-1 of the Labour Code defines its mission in one sentence: “Le conseil de prud’hommes règle par voie de conciliation les différends qui peuvent s’élever à l’occasion de tout contrat de travail soumis aux dispositions du présent code entre les employeurs, ou leurs représentants, et les salariés qu’ils emploient. Il juge les litiges lorsque la conciliation n’a pas abouti.” Conciliation first, judgment only if conciliation fails. The summons you received almost always calls you first before the bureau de conciliation et d’orientation. Article L1454-1 of the Labour Code states that “Le bureau de conciliation et d’orientation est chargé de concilier les parties”, and adds a detail that matters for founders abroad: “Dans le cadre de cette mission, le bureau de conciliation et d’orientation peut entendre chacune des parties séparément et dans la confidentialité.” The board can hear each side separately and confidentially, which makes conciliation a genuine negotiation channel rather than a formality, including when one party joins through a representative.

The official English guidance on how a labour court case runs describes the standard timetable: the BCO convenes the parties to a conciliation session, the summons typically arrives two to three weeks ahead, a failed conciliation sends the case toward a judgment hearing roughly six to eight months later, and economic dismissal disputes are heard within one month of the claim. The same page warns foreign employers miss most often: when a party stays away without a legitimate reason, the board can decide the dispute directly, with health, transport, family or work obstacles counting as legitimate reasons and a mere distance problem counting for nothing. An ignored summons can therefore become an enforceable order without you ever filing a defence. Check the summons header today for four items: the council and its section, the exact date and room, whether you are called to conciliation or already to judgment, and the list of claims with amounts. If the summons went to an old registered office address, have your domiciliation provider, the company hosting your siège, confirm the forwarding chain in writing, because service at the registered office is valid even if you personally live on another continent.

Proceedings run entirely in French, including the hearing, the exhibits and the judgment. Have counsel translate your key documents into French through a sworn translator, traducteur assermenté, the court-accredited translator, before the conciliation date, because English originals handed across the table slow the board and weaken their weight. The employee’s claims arrive in French legal vocabulary: licenciement sans cause réelle et sérieuse means dismissal without real and serious cause, rappel de salaire means back pay, indemnité compensatrice de préavis means pay in lieu of notice, and dommages et intérêts means damages. Ask counsel for a line-by-line translation of the claim schedule with the legal basis of each head of claim, since each one points to a different defence file.

Two traps specific to foreign founders appear at this stage. First, sending the wrong person: the accountant or a friend cannot represent the company without proper authority, and an unauthorised appearance counts little more than absence, as explained below. Second, treating conciliation as optional: the board that fails to conciliate you is the gateway to the judgment board, and everything said or offered at conciliation shapes the later negotiation, so arrive with a mandate that allows settlement, not with instructions to request a postponement. If the workplace is in Paris, the case sits with the Paris council and its sections; the practical consequence for a founder abroad is identical everywhere in France, which is to mandate local counsel immediately, because every deadline runs in French working days and every letter must arrive in the right form.

B. What does losing cost: statutory severance, the damages scale and the cases that escape it?

Separate two sums the judges handle differently. First, the statutory severance, indemnité de licenciement, which is owed for a valid dismissal and is not damages. Article L1234-9 of the Labour Code provides: “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.” Eight months of uninterrupted service opens the right, serious misconduct closes it, and the regulatory rate turns months of salary into euros. This sum is due even when the dismissal is fair, so it forms the floor of any settlement discussion, never a concession.

Second, the damages for dismissal without real and serious cause, cause réelle et sérieuse, the substantive standard every French dismissal must meet. Article L1235-3 of the Labour Code 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.” Either side can refuse reinstatement, and the judge then awards damages inside a statutory scale, the barème Macron, computed in months of gross salary by seniority: no full year of service caps damages at one month, one year runs from one to two months, two years from three to three and a half months, and the ceiling climbs with seniority to twenty months beyond thirty years, with lower minimums in companies that habitually employ fewer than eleven staff. For a first hire dismissed after fourteen months, the employer’s worst case on this head is about two months’ salary, a number that should discipline both panic and stubbornness from the start.

A frequent misunderstanding costs foreign employers real money at settlement: the statutory severance and the scale damages cumulate. The end of article L1235-3 states that the severance “est cumulable, le cas échéant, avec les indemnités prévues aux articles L. 1235-12 , L. 1235-13 et L. 1235-15 , dans la limite des montants maximaux prévus au présent article.” Severance sits on top of scale damages within the ceiling, so a first hire with fourteen months of service can lawfully walk away with severance plus up to two months of scale damages, plus any procedural compensation, and your settlement spreadsheet must add the layers instead of treating the scale as an all-inclusive cap. In companies that habitually employ fewer than eleven staff, the scale minimums drop, which directly lowers the opening of the negotiation bracket for most foreign founders whose French headcount is still one.

This scale survived its biggest challenge, and the employee’s lawyer will not reopen it. The Court of Cassation, Social Chamber, 11 May 2022, No 21-14.490 (full decision on courdecassation.fr), published in the Bulletin and the annual Report, held: “Il en résulte que les dispositions de l’article L. 1235-3 du code du travail sont compatibles avec les stipulations de l’article 10 de la Convention précitée”, the Convention being ILO Convention No 158 on termination of employment, whose article 10 requires adequate compensation. The scale therefore caps the standard unfair-dismissal claim, and arguments that it breaches international law have been exhausted at the highest level. The exception that truly matters is nullity. Article L1235-3-1 of the Labour Code removes the scale where the dismissal violates a fundamental freedom, follows moral or sexual harassment, or is discriminatory, and provides that “lorsque le salarié ne demande pas la poursuite de l’exécution de son contrat de travail ou que sa réintégration est impossible, le juge lui octroie une indemnité, à la charge de l’employeur, qui ne peut être inférieure aux salaires des six derniers mois.” Six months’ salary minimum, no ceiling. When the summons alleges harassment or discrimination, even in one line among standard claims, treat the file as a different category of risk: audit the facts with counsel before any contact with the employee, and never put a numeric offer in writing until the nullity allegation is assessed.

II. How do you defend from abroad without losing by default?

A. Who appears for the company, and which papers prove the dismissal was fair?

You do not need to fly to France for the conciliation, but someone authorised must sit in the room. Article R1453-2 of the Labour Code lists who may assist or represent parties, including lawyers, and adds for employers: “L’employeur peut également se faire assister ou représenter par un membre de l’entreprise ou de l’établissement fondé de pouvoir ou habilité à cet effet.” A company officer or employee with a proper written authority can appear, and a French employment lawyer routinely handles the whole first phase under a power of attorney. The representative who is not a lawyer must hold a special authority, and before the conciliation board that document must expressly empower settlement in the principal’s name, so have counsel draft the pouvoir, the written authority, rather than improvising a one-line email. The official English guidance confirms both sides may defend themselves alone or through an authorised representative, and repeats the warning that counts most for founders in other time zones: an unjustified absence lets the board decide directly.

Prove who signs for the company before anything else. The Kbis, the official company identity certificate, names the legal representative, and the board checks that the person appearing or mandating counsel matches the RCS entry. If the named director changed since the Kbis was issued, file the updated corporate documents with the representative’s authority so the appearance cannot be challenged. Powers of attorney signed abroad need no apostille for labour court use in practice, but they must be written, dated, identify the case and the hearing, and expressly authorise settlement, because a representative who must phone London for every figure loses the conciliation.

The defence itself starts with the dismissal letter, because in France the letter frames the entire trial. Article L1232-6 of the Labour Code requires that “il lui notifie sa décision par lettre recommandée avec avis de réception”, that “Cette lettre comporte l’énoncé du ou des motifs invoqués par l’employeur”, and 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.” Registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, stated grounds, sent at least two full working days after the scheduled preliminary meeting. Pull these five documents today: the employment contract with any trial clause, the registered invitation to the preliminary meeting with its proof of sending, the signed minutes or notes of that meeting, the dismissal letter with the postal receipt and the acknowledgment of receipt, and the final pay slip with severance computation. Missing the acknowledgment of receipt is the classic foreign-founder gap: without it, you cannot prove when the employee received the letter, and as shown below, that date can decide whether the claim is even admissible.

Build the evidence file around the grounds stated in the letter and nothing else, because judges assess the dismissal on the reasons written there. Gather dated proof for each ground: performance reviews signed by the employee, written warnings with acknowledgment, absence records, client complaints, and the payroll records showing working time where hours are disputed. Store everything with French counsel in one indexed file, keep the originals, and stop all direct written contact with the employee the day the summons arrives: every message you send from abroad after that date becomes an exhibit, and informal apologies or explanations read as admissions before a labour judge. If the dismissal followed a trial-period termination that you believe was valid, assemble the trial clause, any renewal signed before expiry, and the notice computation, since the employee’s first argument will be that no valid trial existed and the termination was a dismissal without procedure.

B. Do you settle at conciliation or fight to judgment, and when is the claim already dead?

Conciliation is a price negotiation with the scale as the table. Open with the statutory severance already due, add the procedural risks you cannot cure, such as a late invitation or a missing meeting, then position the offer inside the L1235-3 bracket for the employee’s seniority, discounted for the defences you can prove. Employers who arrive with a computed bracket and authority to sign close files at conciliation; employers who arrive to argue the merits pay the six to eight months of procedure plus the same bracket later. Any agreement should be drafted by counsel as a formal settlement with mutual waivers, payment schedule, tax and social treatment of each sum, delivery of corrected employment documents, and withdrawal of the claim, because an oral understanding at the hearing binds no one until written and signed. If the employee demands reinstatement, remember that either party may refuse it and fall back on damages, so a small company never has to take back a hire that broke trust.

Before paying anything, check whether the claim is out of time, because the twelve-month guillotine kills many late claims cleanly. Article L1471-1 of the Labour Code provides: “Toute action portant sur l’exécution du contrat de travail se prescrit par deux ans à compter du jour où celui qui l’exerce a connu ou aurait dû connaître les faits lui permettant d’exercer son droit. Toute action portant sur la rupture du contrat de travail se prescrit par douze mois à compter de la notification de la rupture.” Two years for performance claims such as unpaid overtime, twelve months for challenging the dismissal itself. The Court of Cassation, Social Chamber, 21 May 2025, No 24-10.009 (full decision on courdecassation.fr), published in the Bulletin, fixed the starting point in the employer’s favour on procedure and the employee’s on proof: “le délai de prescription de l’action en contestation de la rupture du contrat de travail court à compter de la date de réception par le salarié de la lettre recommandée avec demande d’avis de réception notifiant la rupture.” The clock starts on receipt of the registered letter, not on sending, and the day of receipt does not count. This is why the acknowledgment of receipt matters twice: it proves the dismissal was notified, and it dates the twelve-month window. Count twelve months from the day after receipt, and if the summons was filed later, raise inadmissibility first, before any discussion of the merits, because courts examine time bars before substance.

Price provisional enforcement into the decision to appeal. French labour judgments commonly order immediate payment of part of the sums even when appealed, so winning later can still mean paying now, and a foreign company with a French bank account should expect enforcement by a commissaire de justice, the enforcement officer, directly against that account. This prospect is precisely what makes a conciliation payment schedule attractive: money paid voluntarily on agreed dates costs less than money seized with enforcement fees added. Have counsel confirm, for each head of the judgment, what is immediately enforceable and what waits for the appeal, then compare that cash position with the settlement the employee would have signed at conciliation.

If conciliation fails, the case goes to the judgment board, where procedure is full, representation follows the same rules, and the judges decide on the file both sides exchange. Have counsel calendar the appeal window the day judgment is served, since French appeal deadlines run short and a late appeal dies without examination. Keep the payroll and insurance bodies updated in parallel: the DSN, déclaration sociale nominative, the monthly payroll return, the final settlement, attestation France Travail, the unemployment certificate, and the work certificate must be consistent with whatever outcome the case reaches, or a won trial produces a lost URSSAF audit behind it. Newcomers organising their company from scratch should read the formation pillar Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder: Bank Account, Kbis, VAT and Your First Hire, which walks through the Kbis, the official company identity certificate issued by the greffe, the registry office of the commercial court, the Guichet unique one-stop shop and the hiring steps whose paperwork decides cases like this one.

Conclusion

A labour court summons received abroad is a two-phase problem with a computable price. The conciliation board under L1454-1 seeks settlement first and can decide against an absent party, so mandate an authorised representative with power to settle rather than flying in unprepared or staying silent. Price the file with L1234-9 severance at the floor and the L1235-3 scale, validated against ILO Convention No 158 on 11 May 2022, as the bracket, watching only for nullity claims under L1235-3-1 with their six-month minimum. Prove notification through the registered letter required by L1232-6, count the twelve-month challenge period from receipt per L1471-1 and the 21 May 2025 ruling, and raise the time bar before the merits. A summons answered in weeks with a computed offer closes at conciliation; a summons ignored from abroad becomes a judgment enforced against the company’s French bank account.

Need a quick opinion on your case

Labour court summons, conciliation hearing, dismissal challenged, severance or damages claimed by your first French hire while you live abroad: get a clear answer before you sign or send anything. Telephone consultation: 80 EUR TTC. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm, in Paris and Ile-de-France or remotely from abroad. Send your summons, dismissal letter, contract and pay slips through our contact page for a paid first review at 80 EUR TTC.