You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and one of your French employees has just said the words every foreign founder both hopes for and dreads: let us agree on my departure. No misconduct to prove, no redundancy plan to fund, no resignation letter to negotiate. The French answer to this situation is the rupture conventionnelle, the mutual separation agreement that ends an open-ended contract by consent and, once approved by the administration, gives the employee unemployment benefits while giving the employer a clean, dated break. It is the most used agreed-exit tool in France, and for a founder managing from abroad it looks deceptively simple: one meeting, one form, one signature.

The simplicity is a trap for companies run from outside France. The agreement is valid only if the severance reaches a statutory floor computed from real wages and seniority, only if a 15-day withdrawal period is respected to the calendar day, and only if the DREETS, the regional directorate for employment, approves the file or lets its 15-working-day review period expire without objection. Miss the floor by a few euros and the administration refuses approval. Date the departure one day early and the whole agreement can be reclassified as a dismissal without real and serious cause, with back pay and damages set by the labour court. This guide explains, in English and with the exact French legal references, how to calculate the agreed severance, how to sign and file a file that survives review, how the money is taxed and declared, and how each side can still challenge the deal from abroad, including through the Paris office that handles your file when the employee works in Ile-de-France, the Paris region.

I. How to sign an enforceable mutual separation from abroad: the severance floor first, the paperwork second

A. How much the agreed exit costs: calculating the specific severance that the administration will check

French law starts with a principle that surprises founders used to at-will employment: the employer and the employee can jointly agree the conditions of the termination of the employment contract between them, the mutual separation cannot be imposed by either side, and it results from an agreement signed by both parties to the contract, subject to protective rules designed to guarantee free consent. Article L. 1237-11 of the Labour Code states this, word for word: “L’employeur et le salarié peuvent convenir en commun des conditions de la rupture du contrat de travail qui les lie. La rupture conventionnelle, exclusive du licenciement ou de la démission, ne peut être imposée par l’une ou l’autre des parties. Elle résulte d’une convention signée par les parties au contrat. Elle est soumise aux dispositions de la présente section destinées à garantir la liberté du consentement des parties.” In practice this means the negotiation is free on everything above the legal minimum, and strictly controlled on the minimum itself. You can always pay more than the floor to buy a fast, peaceful exit. You can never pay less, and the administration checks the arithmetic before approving anything.

The floor is set by Article L. 1237-13 of the Labour Code, which provides, word for word: “La convention de rupture définit les conditions de celle-ci, notamment le montant de l’indemnité spécifique de rupture conventionnelle qui ne peut pas être inférieur à celui de l’indemnité prévue à l’article L. 1234-9 . Elle fixe la date de rupture du contrat de travail, qui ne peut intervenir avant le lendemain du jour de l’homologation. A compter de la date de sa signature par les deux parties, chacune d’entre elles dispose d’un délai de quinze jours calendaires pour exercer son droit de rétractation. Ce droit est exercé sous la forme d’une lettre adressée par tout moyen attestant de sa date de réception par l’autre partie.” Three operative rules sit in that single paragraph, and foreign-run files fail on each of them: the severance cannot sit below the statutory dismissal severance, the departure date cannot fall before the day after approval, and each side holds a 15-calendar-day withdrawal right exercised by a letter sent by any means proving its date of receipt. Read the paragraph twice before signing anything, because the rest of the procedure only enforces what it says.

The reference severance of Article L. 1234-9 of the Labour Code belongs to employees on open-ended contracts with at least 8 months of uninterrupted service with the same employer, except in cases of serious misconduct, and its rate and calculation method are set by regulation. The regulation is Article R. 1234-1 of the Labour Code, which states, word for word: “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. En cas d’année incomplète, l’indemnité est calculée proportionnellement au nombre de mois complets.” The scale itself is in Article R. 1234-2 of the Labour Code, word for word: “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.” The Court of Cassation confirmed that this regulatory scale is exactly how the minimum specific severance is computed, holding in its published judgment of 30 September 2020, appeal No. 19-15.675, that the minimum under Article L. 1237-13 is the amount of Article L. 1234-9 as computed by Articles R. 1234-1 and R. 1234-2, a decision founders can retrieve on the official Légifrance case-law database at Légifrance, appeal No. 19-15.675.

Run the numbers on a realistic Paris case before negotiating. Take a non-executive employee with 5 years of service earning 4,000 euros gross per month, where the reference salary, usually the most favourable average of the last 3 or 12 months including bonuses pro rata, also comes out at 4,000 euros. The statutory floor is 5 years times one quarter of a month, or 1.25 months, which is 5,000 euros. With 5 years and 7 full extra months, the seven months add 7 twelfths of a quarter-month, about 583 euros, for a floor near 5,583 euros. With 12 years of service the first 10 years give 2.5 months and the last 2 years give two thirds of a month, roughly 3.17 months of salary. Then check the applicable collective agreement, the convention collective, because many Paris-sector agreements, Syntec for tech and consulting, commerce, advertising, set a higher scale, often one third of a month per year from the start, and the administration applies whichever floor is higher, statutory or contractual. An employee with under 8 months of service has no statutory floor, but the file still needs a stated amount, zero is accepted in theory and refused in spirit, and paying a goodwill sum avoids both a refusal and a later consent dispute. Founders choosing between company forms before hiring will recognise the same logic as in our pillar guide for foreign founders on choosing between a SAS, a SARL, a branch or a subsidiary in France: the vehicle changes who signs, never the labour-law arithmetic that follows.

Two calculation traps catch foreign employers specifically. First, the reference salary is not the last payslip. Variable pay, 13th month, overtime premiums and performance bonuses count, each pro rated over their accrual period, and part-time years count in proportion to hours worked, so a founder who multiplies the current monthly gross by seniority understates or overstates the floor and invites either a refusal or an overpayment. Second, a file refused once for an insufficient amount is not fixed by quietly initialling a higher figure. After an administrative refusal based on a below-floor severance, the parties in a 2018 case signed a second agreement raising the amount while keeping the same withdrawal-expiry date, and the dispute over whether a fresh withdrawal period ran ended before the Court of Cassation, which rejected the employer’s appeal on 13 June 2018, appeal No. 16-24.830, retrievable at Légifrance, appeal No. 16-24.830. The operational lesson is blunt: when the amount changes after a refusal, restart the full timetable with a new meeting record and a new 15-day period rather than recycling the old dates. A second signature costs two weeks. A recycled date can cost the whole agreement.

B. The meeting, the 15-day withdrawal window and the DREETS approval: building a file that survives review from abroad

The procedure opens with one or more meetings at which the principle of the separation is agreed, and the employee may be assisted either by a person of their choice from inside the company, a union office-holder, a staff-representative member or any other employee, or, where the company has no staff representation, by an outside staff adviser chosen from an official list drawn up by the administration. Article L. 1237-12 of the Labour Code provides this in full, word for word: “Les parties au contrat conviennent du principe d’une rupture conventionnelle lors d’un ou plusieurs entretiens au cours desquels le salarié peut se faire assister : 1° Soit par une personne de son choix appartenant au personnel de l’entreprise, qu’il s’agisse d’un salarié titulaire d’un mandat syndical ou d’un salarié membre d’une institution représentative du personnel ou tout autre salarié ; 2° Soit, en l’absence d’institution représentative du personnel dans l’entreprise, par un conseiller du salarié choisi sur une liste dressée par l’autorité administrative. Lors du ou des entretiens, l’employeur a la faculté de se faire assister quand le salarié en fait lui-même usage. Le salarié en informe l’employeur auparavant ; si l’employeur souhaite également se faire assister, il en informe à son tour le salarié. L’employeur peut se faire assister par une personne de son choix appartenant au personnel de l’entreprise ou, dans les entreprises de moins de cinquante salariés, par une personne appartenant à son organisation syndicale d’employeurs ou par un autre employeur relevant de la même branche.” For a founder living abroad, the mirror rule matters most: the employer may be assisted only if the employee uses assistance themselves, so ask in writing before the meeting whether the employee will come assisted, keep the reply, and if you attend by video link or through a mandated manager in France, record the mandate and the attendance in the meeting minutes. Small foreign subsidiaries almost always fall under 50 staff, which opens the right to bring an employers-organisation adviser or another employer from the same sector, a useful option when no manager is available in France.

Signature opens the 15-calendar-day withdrawal period, and calendar means calendar: weekends and public holidays count, and the period runs from the day after the signature date shown on the agreement. Each side can withdraw by letter sent by any means proving its date of receipt, which from abroad means email with acknowledgment, registered electronic letter, or courier with tracking, never an unwitnessed phone call. Only after this period expires may the most diligent party file for approval with the administration, enclosing a copy of the agreement, on the ministerial model form. Article L. 1237-14 of the Labour Code governs this stage, word for word: “A l’issue du délai de rétractation, la partie la plus diligente adresse une demande d’homologation à l’autorité administrative, avec un exemplaire de la convention de rupture. Un arrêté du ministre chargé du travail fixe le modèle de cette demande. L’autorité administrative dispose d’un délai d’instruction de quinze jours ouvrables, à compter de la réception de la demande, pour s’assurer du respect des conditions prévues à la présente section et de la liberté de consentement des parties. A défaut de notification dans ce délai, l’homologation est réputée acquise et l’autorité administrative est dessaisie. La validité de la convention est subordonnée à son homologation. L’homologation ne peut faire l’objet d’un litige distinct de celui relatif à la convention. Tout litige concernant la convention, l’homologation ou le refus d’homologation relève de la compétence du conseil des prud’hommes, à l’exclusion de tout autre recours contentieux ou administratif. Le recours juridictionnel doit être formé, à peine d’irrecevabilité, avant l’expiration d’un délai de douze mois à compter de la date d’homologation de la convention.” Note the shift from calendar days to working days for the review period, the rule that silence for 15 working days equals approval, and the final sentence that will dominate the second half of this guide: any court challenge must be filed within 12 months of approval, on pain of inadmissibility, before the labour court alone.

In practice the filing goes through TeleRC, the online portal for individual mutual-separation approvals, which is mandatory for transmitting the request, and the competent office follows the employee’s workplace, not the founder’s address. When the employee works in Paris or elsewhere in Ile-de-France, the file goes to the DRIEETS, the Ile-de-France regional and interdepartmental directorate, the Paris-region counterpart of the DREETS, and Paris founders should expect the same substantive checks with a heavier caseload and a strict reading of meeting and assistance records. Build the timetable backwards from the target departure date: meeting day, plus signature, plus 15 calendar days of withdrawal, plus filing, plus 15 working days of review, with departure on the day after approval at the earliest. A common from-abroad schedule runs 5 to 7 weeks end to end, and any promise of an earlier exit written into the agreement is void against the approval rule. If the administration refuses approval, the contract simply continues, the employee stays employed and paid, and the parties may either abandon the project or restart cleanly with a new meeting and a new period, as the 2018 case above illustrates. If the employee is a protected employee, a pregnant employee’s protections, a staff representative, a union delegate or a member of the social and economic committee, the CSE, the works-council body mandatory from 11 employees, the approval route does not apply at all: Article L. 1237-15 of the Labour Code requires the labour inspector’s authorisation instead, and the contract can end only on the day after that authorisation. Check the protected-status question before the first meeting, because discovering a mandate after filing wastes the entire timetable. Where the separation instead follows a failed trial, a misconduct allegation or a redundancy rationale, the companion procedures differ sharply, and our companion guide on dismissing a French employee on personal grounds from abroad maps the notice, severance and litigation route that the mutual path is designed to avoid.

II. How the agreed exit ends: money, papers and court challenges without travelling to France

A. What the employee walks away with: final settlement, tax and social treatment, and unemployment rights

On the agreed departure date the employer must hand over the three end-of-contract documents: the final settlement receipt, the solde de tout compte, itemising salary balance, paid-leave indemnity and the specific severance; the work certificate, the certificat de travail; and the France Travail attestation, the certificate for the public employment operator formerly called Pole emploi, which conditions the employee’s unemployment benefits. The separation carries no notice period, no preavis, unless the parties voluntarily build one into the departure date, which is precisely why founders pay the premium: the employee leaves on a known date with known money, and the company avoids months of tense notice. Accrued but untaken paid leave is paid out as a leave indemnity on top of the severance, calculated at one tenth of gross earnings over the leave reference period or by the salary-maintenance method, whichever is higher, so pull the leave counter before finalising the amount and never present the severance as including the leave balance unless the breakdown says so in figures.

The tax and social treatment is where foreign founders misprice the deal. The specific severance is exempt from income tax and, within ceilings, from employee social contributions up to its statutory or collectively-agreed minimum, with the surplus taxed and charged; the employer’s side bears a dedicated employer contribution on the exempt portion under Article L. 137-15 of the Social Security Code, currently at a 30 percent rate since the 2023 reform, plus CSG and CRDS, the general and debt-repayment social levies, on the taxable fraction under the standard rules. Concretely, a negotiated 20,000-euro package where the floor was 5,583 euros leaves roughly 14,400 euros exposed to income tax and to employee levies, while the employer funds the 30 percent contribution on the exempt slice in addition to the headline amount. Route every figure through French payroll before signing: the DSN, the single monthly nominative social declaration filed with URSSAF, the social-security collection agency, must report the severance with its exact legal coding, and a miscoded line triggers reassessment, late-payment surcharges and a paper trail the employee’s counsel will use. The official severance simulator on service-public.fr and the BOSS, the official social-security bulletin, give the current ceilings, and your payroll provider should produce a pre-signing cost sheet showing gross cost to the company, net to the employee, and each levy’s base, because the number the founder approves in an email from abroad is rarely the number the company actually pays.

The employee’s unemployment rights explain why staff accept these deals and why founders should never promise benefit outcomes in writing. An approved mutual separation opens the same unemployment entitlement as a dismissal, subject to the standard 7-day waiting period plus a specific deferral computed from the supra-legal part of the severance, capped in days, which means a generous package delays the first benefit cheque and occasionally surprises the employee. Never state in the agreement or in side emails when benefits will start or how much they will be; point the employee to France Travail and keep the company’s promises to money and dates only. For the founder’s own position, remember that the foreign parent’s directors who do not hold French employment contracts sit outside this entire regime: president and general-manager mandates end by corporate revocation, not by labour-law separation, with different social treatment through the independent-workers or expatriate schemes. Mixing the two, for instance paying a director’s exit through a sham rupture conventionnelle, creates a reclassification risk that an URSSAF audit, the agency’s employer-control procedure, will price at full back contributions plus penalties, a scenario our audit guide describes from the employer’s side.

Paris adds a final practical layer. Ile-de-France employees change address often, and the France Travail attestation, the final settlement and the tax withholding statements must follow the employee’s declared residence, not the company’s registered office, so confirm the personal address in the agreement itself. Companies with a Paris establishment also remain liable for the mobility payment and the Paris-region transport levies on the final payroll, and the withholding on the taxable severance fraction follows the employee’s personal tax rate transmitted through the PASRAU channel, the payroll-to-tax data flow, which a foreign-run payroll sometimes forgets to query, producing an under-withheld employee and an employer liable for the gap. None of this requires a trip to France: mandates to a payroll provider, electronic signatures with qualified certificates, and video-attended meetings with written minutes handle the whole closing from abroad, provided each mandate names the signatory, the scope and the ceilings, and each document is archived where a labour inspector or auditor can retrieve it within days.

B. When the deal collapses: refusal, withdrawal, annulment for defective consent and the 12-month court deadline

Four failure modes exist, and each has its own clock. First, the administration refuses approval, most often for a below-floor severance, a missing meeting record, or a departure date set before the day after deemed approval. The contract continues untouched, wages keep running, and the only lawful paths are a clean restart or abandonment; there is no appeal against the refusal itself except through the labour-court challenge to the agreement as a whole. Second, either side withdraws within the 15 calendar days by a letter proving its receipt date. A withdrawal sent on day 15 by tracked email counts; a phone call does not, and a founder in another time zone should diarize the deadline in Paris time with a 48-hour safety margin. Third, the 15-working-day review expires silently, which equals approval, and the departure may occur from the next day; calendarise the deemed-approval date from the administration’s acknowledgment of receipt, not from the sending date, and keep the acknowledgment permanently.

Fourth, and most litigated, a party seeks annulment before the labour court for defective consent: fraud, duress or mistake that vitiated the agreement. The Court of Cassation polices this ground strictly in both directions. On 23 January 2019, appeal No. 17-21.550, the Social Chamber quashed an appeal ruling that had annulled a mutual separation solely because the employee described a moral-harassment context, holding that absent proof of defective consent, the existence of harassment facts alone does not invalidate an agreement signed under Article L. 1237-11, a decision retrievable at Légifrance, appeal No. 17-21.550. The message for founders is symmetrical and practical: a difficult prior relationship does not doom the agreement, but any pressure, threat, lie about rights, or exploitation of the employee’s ignorance at the meeting can void it, so keep the meeting factual, hand over the statutory information, leave the employee time to take advice, and write nothing in messages that reads as an ultimatum. Short deadlines imposed by the employer, signatures extracted on the spot without the assistance offer, and severance figures presented as non-negotiable when the law requires genuine agreement are the classic annulment facts, and they are all proved by emails and messages the company itself wrote.

The challenge deadline is brutal and shared by every dispute over the agreement, its approval or its refusal: the court action must be brought within 12 months of the approval date, on pain of inadmissibility, before the labour court alone, to the exclusion of any other administrative or judicial recourse, as Article L. 1237-14 states in the passage quoted above. A successful annulment action reclassifies the break as a dismissal without real and serious cause, which reopens the full dismissal-compensation scale: statutory or contractual severance, paid-notice damages, accrued-leave indemnity, and court-awarded damages within the Macron scale, plus reimbursement of unemployment benefits to France Travail, all years after the founder considered the file closed. A failed challenge leaves the agreement intact, and the parties may still sign a settlement, a transaction, after an approved separation to close out residual disputes, provided the settlement adds mutual concessions beyond what the agreement already granted. From abroad, litigation runs through a French counsel with a written mandate covering settlement authority and ceilings; hearings before the Paris labour court for Ile-de-France employees proceed with counsel, written submissions and, where needed, video arrangements the court allows, and limitation is interrupted by a court filing, not by a complaint letter. Archive everything for at least the 12-month challenge period and beyond: the meeting invitation and minutes, the assistance correspondence, the signed agreement with its amount breakdown, the withdrawal-deadline computation, the TeleRC filing acknowledgment, the approval or deemed-approval calculation, the final settlement and its payroll coding. The file that survives is the file that proves, paper by paper, that two free consents met on a lawful amount on lawful dates.

Conclusion

A mutual separation is the fastest lawful way to part with a French employee who agrees to leave, but only when the founder treats it as a regulated procedure rather than a private handshake. Calculate the floor from real reference wages and the higher of the statutory and contractual scales, restart the timetable cleanly after any refusal instead of recycling dates, run the meeting with the assistance rules observed and minuted, file through TeleRC with the competent DREETS or the DRIEETS for Paris-region staff, and let the departure fall the day after approval at the earliest. Price the employer’s contribution and the taxable surplus before signing, code the payroll correctly, and promise the employee money and dates, never benefit outcomes. Keep every paper until the 12-month challenge period expires, because an agreement that looks consensual on signature day is judged, if ever, on the papers that prove consent was free. Handled this way from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, the French agreed exit does exactly what foreign founders need: a known cost, a known date, and a break that stays broken.