You run your French company from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. Your first hire in France passed the trial period, so the flexible early exit is gone, but the working relationship has deteriorated since. Deadlines slip, clients complain, instructions are ignored, or trust has simply evaporated. You cannot leave a permanent contract in place out of embarrassment, yet you dread French dismissal law and its reputation for punishing foreign employers who improvise. This guide explains how a non-resident founder or foreign parent company dismisses a French employee on personal grounds after probation, what the procedure costs, which documents close the file, and how the labour courts review your decision if the employee challenges it.

In France, dismissal on personal grounds, called licenciement pour motif personnel, covers everything attached to the employee as a person: misconduct, poor performance, repeated errors, refusal to follow instructions, or loss of trust rooted in objective facts. It is different from dismissal for economic reasons, which follows the difficulties of the company and triggers heavier duties such as redeployment searches and, in smaller companies, the offer of a secured career path. It is also different from ending the contract during the trial period, where no dismissal procedure applies, and from the agreed separation, which requires the consent of both sides. Each route has its own rules, and using the wrong one is the most common and most expensive mistake foreign employers make. The companion guides to this article cover the earlier fork in the road, when the trial period fails and the contract ends before it expires, and the consensual alternative, the mutual termination approved by the administration. This article deals only with the unilateral dismissal of an employee whose trial period is over, decided and notified by the employer. It follows the general roadmap for choosing the right French vehicle, SAS simplified joint-stock company, SARL limited liability company, branch or subsidiary, from abroad, then focuses on the day the first hire must go.

French law puts the burden of proof on the employer and reviews both the substance and the form of every dismissal. A genuine reason presented through a defective procedure still costs money, and a clean procedure built on vague grievances collapses before the labour court. Distance makes both failures more likely: evidence stays in Paris while decisions are taken abroad, letters cross borders, time limits are counted in French working days, and the employee meets an adviser while the director learns the file by video call. The method below is designed for exactly that situation. It cites the Labour Code article by article, explains every French acronym in plain English, and gives remote managers a timetable they can operate without boarding a plane.

I. How do you dismiss a French employee on personal grounds when you manage from abroad?

A. Which procedure protects the dismissal from the invitation letter to the notification?

Every dismissal for personal grounds in a company of any size starts with a mandatory preliminary meeting, called entretien préalable. Article L1232-2 of the Labour Code states: “L’employeur qui envisage de licencier un salarié le convoque, avant toute décision, à un entretien préalable.” In English: an employer who considers dismissing an employee must invite that employee, before any decision, to a preliminary meeting. The invitation follows strict formalities. The same article provides that the invitation is sent by registered letter or handed over in person against a signed receipt, that it states the purpose of the meeting, and that “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 English: the meeting cannot take place less than five working days after presentation of the registered letter or hand delivery of the invitation. The official text is here: Article L1232-2, Labour Code, invitation to the preliminary meeting. Working days, or jours ouvrables, run from Monday to Saturday excluding public holidays, which is a different count from calendar days and a frequent source of miscalculation by foreign human resources teams.

From abroad, send the invitation by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt to the employee’s home address in France, and keep the postal receipts with their dates. Hand delivery is impractical when the director lives outside France, unless a duly authorised representative in France delivers it. Allow a wide margin beyond the five working days, because presentation by the postal service, failed delivery attempts, and collection at the post office all shift the starting point. Never state in the invitation that the dismissal is already decided. Words such as removal, termination date, or replacement announce a decision taken before the meeting and support a finding of procedural irregularity. The letter invites the employee to be heard on a contemplated measure, nothing more.

At the meeting, the employee may come with support. Article L1232-4 of the Labour Code provides: “Lors de son audition, le salarié peut se faire assister par une personne de son choix appartenant au personnel de l’entreprise.” In English: at the hearing, the employee may be assisted by a person of his choice belonging to the staff of the company. The same article adds that where there are no elected staff representatives in the company, the employee may be assisted either by a fellow employee or by an outside employee adviser, called conseiller du salarié, chosen from a list drawn up by the administration, and that the invitation letter must mention this possibility with the address where the list is available. The official text is here: Article L1232-4, Labour Code, assistance of the employee at the meeting. In a company whose only employee is the person you plan to dismiss, there is no staff representative, so expect an outside adviser and do not object to his presence.

The meeting itself can be held by the foreign director by video link if travel is impossible, but it must be a real discussion, not a reading of a decision. State the grievances precisely, listen to the employee’s explanations, and take notes. The employee’s explanations given at the meeting can change the employer’s assessment, and judges check that the employer genuinely considered them. Have a French-speaking person present or a reliable interpreter when the employee works in French, and confirm the content of the discussion in writing afterwards. If the person who conducts the meeting is not the legal representative of the company, secure a written delegation of powers before the meeting, because the authority of the signatory of the dismissal letter is one of the first points a labour lawyer verifies. Our companion analysis of that exact issue shows how challenges to signing authority succeed: delegation of powers and challenges to the signatory of the dismissal letter.

After the meeting, the decision is notified by a reasoned letter. Article L1232-6 of the Labour Code states: “Lorsque l’employeur décide de licencier un salarié, il lui notifie sa décision par lettre recommandée avec avis de réception.” In English: when the employer decides to dismiss an employee, it notifies the decision by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt. The same article continues: “Cette lettre comporte l’énoncé du ou des motifs invoqués par l’employeur.” In English: the letter sets out the grounds relied on by the employer. And it adds a second time limit: “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.” In English: it cannot be sent less than two working days after the scheduled date of the preliminary meeting. The official text is here: Article L1232-6, Labour Code, notification of the dismissal. The administration publishes standard letter templates, and using them reduces the risk of omitting a mandatory statement.

The notification letter defines the entire dispute. French courts apply the rule that the letter fixes the boundaries of the litigation: the employer cannot add new grounds later, and vague wording is read against the employer. Each grievance must be stated with dates, places, and concrete facts, so that the employee understands exactly what is held against him and the judge can verify it. A letter that invokes loss of confidence, unsuitable attitude, or insufficient involvement without facts will not survive review. From abroad, have the draft reviewed for factual precision before posting, send it by registered letter with acknowledgment, and keep proof of dispatch. The date of notification starts the employee’s twelve-month deadline for going to court, which is examined in the second part.

B. Which grounds survive review: misconduct, poor performance, or loss of trust?

A dismissal must rest on a real and serious cause, called cause réelle et sérieuse. Real means the facts exist, are provable, and are sufficiently serious to justify ending the contract. Serious means the facts make continuing the employment relationship impossible or at least genuinely difficult. The employer proves the facts; the employee does not have to prove innocence. Assertions without documents lose. Before any dismissal, assemble the file: dated warnings, performance reviews signed by both sides, measurable targets, client complaints with names and dates, evidence of refusals, and records of absence or delay. An employee who was never warned, never evaluated, and never given achievable objectives is very hard to dismiss for poor performance, whatever the director’s frustration.

Misconduct, or faute, comes in three degrees, and the degree chosen changes the cost of the exit. Ordinary misconduct, called faute simple or sérieuse, justifies dismissal but leaves the employee’s rights to notice and statutory severance intact. Serious misconduct, called faute grave, is behaviour that makes keeping the employee in the company during a notice period impossible, for example theft, violence, proven insubordination, or abandonment of post, and it removes the right to notice pay and statutory severance. Gross misconduct with intent to harm the employer, called faute lourde, goes further and can support a claim for damages against the employee. Foreign directors often overstate the degree in the letter, hoping to avoid paying notice and severance, and judges downgrade inflated qualifications while sanctioning the employer for the unpaid sums. Qualify the facts honestly: reserve serious misconduct for conduct that truly prevents any continued presence, document it within days of discovery, and respect the short disciplinary time limit of two months from knowledge of the facts before starting the procedure.

Poor performance, called insuffisance professionnelle, and repeated errors justify dismissal only when they are established by precise, objective, and work-related facts. Courts distinguish between an employee who cannot do the work despite support and an employer who never defined the work. A dismissal letter that complains about disappointing results without targets, about lack of autonomy without training, or about unsatisfactory quality without examples will be held to lack real and serious cause. Build the record over months: a written job description, quantified objectives, regular appraisals, a performance improvement plan with a reasonable period, offers of training, and dated follow-up. The fact that the company employs a single person does not lower this standard; the labour court applies the same review to a one-employee subsidiary of a foreign group as to a large French company.

Loss of trust alone is not a ground. Judges repeat that a bare loss of confidence, without objective facts that undermine the employment relationship, does not constitute real and serious cause. When trust has genuinely broken down, the letter must describe the concrete events that destroyed it: concealed errors with consequences for clients, contradictory statements established by documents, or repeated refusal to report. Similarly, private life stays outside the dismissal unless the employee’s conduct outside work creates a proven disruption inside the company. Verify that no protected status blocks the dismissal before acting: pregnancy, maternity and paternity leave periods, work-related illness suspension, staff representative mandates, and employees who have reported harassment or discrimination follow special procedures with authorisation by the labour inspector. Dismissing a protected employee through the ordinary procedure voids the dismissal and can constitute a criminal offence.

II. How much does the separation cost and how do you close it without litigation?

A. How do you calculate notice, severance, leave and closing documents from abroad?

Unless the dismissal is for serious or gross misconduct, the employee performs or is paid for a notice period, called préavis or délai-congé. The length of notice is set by the employment contract, the applicable collective bargaining agreement, called convention collective, or, failing that, local custom. Foreign founders sometimes assume that a one-month contractual clause settles the matter, then discover that the collective agreement of their sector imposes two or three months for the employee’s classification. Identify the applicable collective agreement at hiring stage from the company’s main activity code, and check the employee’s classification before computing anything. During worked notice, the employee keeps full pay and benefits; when the employer releases the employee from performing notice, called dispense de préavis, the salary for the full notice period remains due. Untaken paid leave is compensated by a specific payment, called indemnité compensatrice de congés payés, calculated on the balance of leave days at the exit date.

Statutory severance, called indemnité légale de licenciement, is due to any employee on a permanent contract, called CDI or contrat à durée indéterminée, dismissed with at least eight months of uninterrupted service for the same employer, except in cases of serious misconduct. Article L1234-9 of the Labour Code states: “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.” In English: an employee on a permanent contract, dismissed with eight months of uninterrupted service with the same employer, is entitled, except in cases of serious misconduct, to a severance payment. The official text is here: Article L1234-9, Labour Code, right to severance pay. The contract or collective agreement may provide a higher contractual or bargained severance, which then replaces the statutory minimum, so compare both calculations and pay the higher.

The statutory minimum is computed year by year on gross salary. Article R1234-1 of the Labour Code provides: “L’indemnité de licenciement prévue à l’article L. 1234-9 ne peut être inférieure à une somme calculée par année de service dans l’entreprise et tenant compte des mois de service accomplis au-delà des années pleines.” In English: the severance cannot be less than a sum calculated per year of service taking account of months served beyond full years. The official text is here: Article R1234-1, Labour Code, calculation over years of service. Article R1234-2 sets the rates: “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.” In English: the payment cannot be less than one quarter of a month’s salary per year of service for the first ten years, and one third of a month’s salary per year beyond ten years. The official text is here: Article R1234-2, Labour Code, minimum severance rates. The reference salary is the most favourable of the average of the last twelve months or the last three months with prorated bonuses, and the calculation must use gross figures. For a first hire with two years of service on 3,500 euros gross per month, the statutory minimum is around 1,750 euros, but contractual top-ups, notice pay, leave compensation and bonuses make the real exit cost several times that figure. Budget the full package before notifying, because proposing a second payment after the employee has gone to court looks like an admission.

At the end of the contract, the employer must deliver three documents, and foreign directors operating remotely must organise their production in advance. First, the work certificate, called certificat de travail, which Article L1234-19 requires in these terms: “A l’expiration du contrat de travail, l’employeur délivre au salarié un certificat dont le contenu est déterminé par voie réglementaire.” In English: when the contract ends, the employer issues the employee a certificate whose content is set by regulation. The official text is here: Article L1234-19, Labour Code, work certificate. Second, the final pay statement, called solde de tout compte, which Article L1234-20 defines as follows: “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.” In English: the final settlement, drawn up by the employer and receipted by the employee, lists the sums paid on termination. The same article warns that “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.” In English: the receipt can be challenged within six months of signature, after which it releases the employer for the sums listed. The official text is here: Article L1234-20, Labour Code, final settlement. Third, the employment-centre certificate, called attestation France Travail, formerly attestation Pôle emploi, which the employer files so the employee can claim unemployment benefits; the practical filing runs through the DSN, the monthly electronic payroll and social declaration, or the France Travail employer portal. Late or missing documents trigger daily penalties ordered by the court, so calendar their delivery for the last day of the contract and keep proof of dispatch. The administration summarises the whole personal-grounds dismissal route for employees and employers on its public service page: service-public.fr, dismissal on personal grounds, procedure and rights.

B. How do labour courts review the dismissal, and which deadlines decide everything?

Losing before the labour court costs far more than the severance saved by cutting corners. When judges find that the dismissal lacks real and serious cause, they may propose reinstatement with preserved benefits, and when either side refuses, which is the usual outcome, they award damages within a statutory scale known as the Macron scale. Article L1235-3 of the Labour Code 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.” In English: if the dismissal is without real and serious cause, the judge may propose reinstatement with preserved benefits. The same article then sets tables of minimum and maximum damages in months of gross salary according to seniority and company size. The official text is here: Article L1235-3, Labour Code, damages scale for dismissal without real and serious cause. For an employee with one full year of service, the scale runs from one to two months of salary in most companies, and the amounts grow with seniority up to twenty months. On top of damages, the employer that loses pays back pay for procedural breaches, the notice and severance that were wrongly withheld, reimbursement of unemployment benefits to the public bodies within statutory limits, and the employee’s partial legal costs.

The employee’s claim is subject to a short limitation period, and both sides must diary it. Article L1471-1 of the Labour Code states: “Toute action portant sur la rupture du contrat de travail se prescrit par douze mois à compter de la notification de la rupture.” In English: any claim concerning the termination of the employment contract is time-barred twelve months after notification of the termination. The official text is here: Article L1471-1, Labour Code, twelve-month limitation for termination disputes. Claims about performance of the contract, such as unpaid overtime or bonuses, follow a two-year period under the same article, while wage claims have their own three-year regime, so an employee can combine a late wage claim with a timely dismissal claim. For the foreign employer, the practical lesson is to keep the complete file, contract, payslips, letters with postal proofs, meeting notes, appraisals, and payroll records, for at least three years after the exit, because a prud’hommes claim, the case before the conseil de prud’hommes, the elected French labour court that hears individual employment disputes, can arrive eleven months after a departure that seemed peaceful.

The labour court procedure starts with a conciliation hearing before the Paris bench when the employee works in Paris or the suburbs, since jurisdiction follows the place of work, and the same rule points to the court of the employer’s French establishment when the employee works elsewhere. For a foreign founder based in Paris with a single employee, that means the Paris labour court and the Paris regional authority network in practice. The first stage invites settlement with the help of two conciliating judges, and many files settle there when the employer’s letter is weak on facts but the procedure is clean. If conciliation fails, the case moves to a full bench of employer and employee judges, with a professional judge breaking ties. Representation from abroad is possible through counsel with a written mandate, and the director rarely needs to attend in person, but the company must produce its evidence in French, translated where necessary, within the timetable set by the court. An employer that ignored the preliminary meeting, sent the notification too early, or omitted the grounds from the letter often loses on procedure alone, whatever the underlying grievances.

When the relationship allows any dialogue, the agreed separation remains the safer commercial exit, and it deserves a final comparison. Article L1237-11 of the Labour Code states: “L’employeur et le salarié peuvent convenir en commun des conditions de la rupture du contrat de travail qui les lie.” In English: the employer and the employee may jointly agree the conditions for ending their contract. The official text is here: Article L1237-11, Labour Code, principle of mutual termination. Article L1237-13 adds that the agreement sets the departure date, which cannot fall before the day after official approval: “Elle fixe la date de rupture du contrat de travail, qui ne peut intervenir avant le lendemain du jour de l’homologation.” In English: it fixes the termination date, which cannot occur before the day after approval. The official text is here: Article L1237-13, Labour Code, departure date and approval. The agreed route costs at least the statutory severance, takes a withdrawal period plus an approval period of several weeks, and gives the employee unemployment rights, but it removes most litigation risk when consent is genuine. Choosing between dismissal and agreement is a business decision driven by the quality of the evidence: strong documented facts support a dismissal, contested facts or a desire for speed point toward negotiation, and a dismissal launched to pressure the employee into signing an agreement poisons both routes.

Conclusion

Dismissing a first French hire on personal grounds from abroad succeeds when three conditions meet: a genuine and documented reason stated precisely in the notification letter, a procedure that respects the five-day and two-day intervals with proof of every dispatch, and a complete financial and documentary exit with notice, severance, leave compensation, work certificate, final settlement and employment-centre attestation delivered on time. The Labour Code provisions cited in this article give the exact thresholds, and the Macron damages scale together with the twelve-month court deadline set the price of error on each side. Foreign directors who prepare the file before inviting the employee to the meeting, who qualify misconduct honestly, and who keep every record for three years, face the labour courts with a defensible case. Those who dismiss by email from another time zone, copy a template without facts, or withhold documents to save a month of salary, convert a manageable separation into a judgment with damages, reimbursements and costs. The structure chosen at incorporation shapes these duties from the first day, which is why the choice between SAS, SARL, branch and subsidiary deserves review before the first hire and again before the first dismissal.