You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore and you run a French company from abroad. Eighteen months ago you completed your first hire in France: a permanent contract, a CDI (contrat à durée indéterminée, the open-ended employment contract that is the normal form of hiring under French law), a DPAE (déclaration préalable à l’embauche, the pre-hiring declaration filed with URSSAF, the network of offices that collects French social security contributions) and a trial period that went well. Today the situation has changed. The role no longer fits, or the employee wants to move on, or the relationship has simply run its course. Nobody committed misconduct, nobody is at fault, and neither side wants a dismissal procedure or a resignation that leaves the employee without unemployment benefits. Your French adviser mentions two words: rupture conventionnelle. This is the mutually agreed termination of an employment contract created by the French Labour Code, a procedure in which employer and employee jointly decide the conditions of the separation, including a specific severance payment, and then ask the administration to approve their agreement. It is neither a dismissal nor a resignation, and it cannot be imposed by either side. For a foreign founder it looks like the clean solution, and it often is, but only when every step is completed in the right order. Sign the agreement before holding a genuine interview, file the approval request one day too early, offer one euro less than the legal floor, or set the end date before the administration answers, and the whole separation collapses: the labour court reclassifies the rupture as a dismissal without real and serious cause, with back pay, notice, severance and damages. This article explains how to part company with your first French employee by mutual agreement while you live abroad, from the interviews to the State approval called homologation, from the severance calculation to the documents that close the file.

I. Sign a rupture conventionnelle your employee cannot undo: interviews, retraction and homologation from abroad

The rupture conventionnelle follows a strict timetable set by statute. The Labour Code organises it in three stages: one or more interviews, a written agreement with a 15-day cooling-off period, and an administrative approval. Each stage protects the freedom of consent of both parties, and each stage has traps for an employer who manages the process from another country. The leading principle is stated in the first article of the section: article L. 1237-11 of the Labour Code provides that the employer and the employee may jointly agree the conditions of the termination of their contract, and it adds, word for word, that “La rupture conventionnelle, exclusive du licenciement ou de la démission, ne peut être imposée par l’une ou l’autre des parties”, which means that the mutually agreed termination, which excludes dismissal or resignation, cannot be imposed by either party. It continues: “Elle résulte d’une convention signée par les parties au contrat”, meaning it results from an agreement signed by the parties to the contract. Everything that follows exists to guarantee that this consent is free, and the labour courts verify it.

A. Hold one or more genuine interviews and sign a written agreement that states the severance and the end date

The procedure starts with dialogue, not paperwork. Article L. 1237-12 of the Labour Code requires the parties to agree the principle of a rupture conventionnelle during one or more interviews. These interviews are not a formality: the official approval form asks for their dates, and an agreement signed without any real discussion exposes you to a later claim that consent was not free. If you live abroad, organise the interviews seriously. Travel to France for at least one of them, or hold a properly scheduled video meeting that both sides treat as the formal interview, keep the invitation and confirm the date in writing, and never present the employee with a pre-signed agreement to rubber-stamp. The interview is also the moment when the employee exercises a right you must respect: during these meetings the employee may be assisted, either by a person of their choice from the staff of the company, or, where the company has no staff representative institution, which is the normal case for a foreign founder with one employee, by an outside employee adviser called a conseiller du salarié chosen from a list drawn up by the administration. The statute adds a mirror rule for you: when the employee uses this assistance, you may also be assisted, provided each side warns the other beforehand. In a one-employee company, inform the employee in writing before the interview that they may come assisted, note who attended, and keep that record with the file.

The written agreement, called the convention de rupture, is the heart of the file. In practice it is signed on the official form, cerfa number 14598, which can also be filed online through TéléRC (téléprocédure de la rupture conventionnelle, the online filing service of the Ministry of Labour). The agreement must define the conditions of the rupture, and article L. 1237-13 of the Labour Code names the two mandatory clauses. First, the amount of the specific rupture indemnity, the indemnité spécifique de rupture conventionnelle, which the same article frames with a floor: “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”, meaning the amount of the specific indemnity cannot be lower than the statutory dismissal indemnity. The detailed calculation of that floor is explained in Part II below, but the rule at the signature stage is simple: never offer less than the legal or conventional minimum, because the administration refuses approval below that line, as the case law confirms. Second, the agreement must fix the date of termination of the contract, with a constraint that structures the whole timetable: “Elle fixe la date de rupture du contrat de travail, qui ne peut intervenir avant le lendemain du jour de l’homologation”, meaning it sets the date of termination, which cannot fall before the day after the approval. In plain terms, the contract ends the day after the administration approves or is deemed to approve, at the earliest. Any earlier date written into the agreement is unlawful and must be moved. Attach useful annexes where relevant, such as the fate of a non-compete clause or the schedule for returning equipment, and have both parties sign and date each page. If your French company was set up as an SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or a SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, the limited liability company), the person who signs for the employer must have authority to bind the company, typically the president of the SAS or the gérant of the SARL, or a person holding a written delegation. A founder living abroad often mandates a French lawyer or accountant for the practical steps, but the interviews and the consent remain those of the employer, so the mandate should be written, dated and kept in the file.

Two categories of employees follow a different track, and you must identify them before signing. Employees with protected status, salariés protégés such as staff representatives or pregnant employees in certain cases, do not go through homologation at all: their rupture conventionnelle requires the authorisation of the labour inspector, and the contract can only end the day after that authorisation. With a single employee this is rare, but check the situation before starting. Conversely, collective departure schemes, work-force reduction plans and collective mutual-separation agreements are excluded from this section of the Code entirely, so the individual rupture conventionnelle described here is strictly a one-by-one procedure. If you chose your company vehicle recently, the companion guide on choosing between an SAS, a SARL and a branch in France explains who signs for the company, and the guide on hiring your first employee in France from abroad covers the contract and trial period that precede any separation.

B. Let the 15-day retraction period run, then obtain the administration approval before the contract ends

Signature does not end the matter; it starts two successive waiting periods, and confusing them is the most common cause of nullity. The first is the right of retraction, the délai de rétractation. Article L. 1237-13 of the Labour Code states it plainly: “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”, meaning that from the date of signature by both parties, each of them has 15 calendar days to exercise the right to change their mind. Either side can withdraw, without giving reasons, by a letter sent through any means that proves the date of receipt by the other party, typically registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or hand delivery against a signed receipt. The official guidance on service-public.fr adds two practical points: the period starts the day after the signature date, and when the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, public holiday or equivalent day off, it is extended to the next working day. During these 15 days, do nothing irreversible: do not file the approval request, do not announce the departure as final, and do not stop paying the salary. If either party retracts, the procedure simply dies and the contract continues.

Only once the retraction period has fully expired may the approval stage begin. The request for homologation is sent by the more diligent party to the administrative authority with a copy of the agreement. Article L. 1237-14 of the Labour Code gives the administration “un délai d’instruction de quinze jours ouvrables”, a 15-working-day examination period running from receipt, to verify that the conditions of the section are met and that consent was free. The competent authority is the DREETS (direction régionale de l’économie, de l’emploi, du travail et des solidarités, the regional directorate for the economy, employment, labour and solidarities) of the place where the employer is established, acting through the local DDETSPP (direction départementale de l’emploi, du travail, des solidarités et de la protection des populations, the departmental directorate), as article R. 1237-3 of the Labour Code designates it. Filing is free and is done online via TéléRC or on paper with the cerfa form. Then comes the rule that protects employers against administrative silence: “A défaut de notification dans ce délai, l’homologation est réputée acquise”, meaning that without notification within that period, approval is deemed granted. Keep the proof of filing and the acknowledgement of receipt, because the deemed approval runs from the expiry of the 15 working days, and your termination date must sit after it. The statute closes with the sentence that gives this stage its full weight: “La validité de la convention est subordonnée à son homologation”, meaning the validity of the agreement depends on its approval. No approval, no rupture: the contract continues, and any separation carried out regardless is analysed as a dismissal without procedure.

The Cour de cassation (the highest French court for civil, commercial and labour matters) enforces this timetable strictly, and two decisions every foreign employer should know illustrate the two main dangers. First, never file early and never recycle an old cooling-off period. In a judgment of 13 June 2018, the Social Chamber held, on the combined application of articles L. 1237-13 and L. 1237-14, and I quote the operative words, “qu’une partie à une convention de rupture ne peut valablement demander l’homologation de cette convention à l’autorité administrative avant l’expiration du délai de rétractation de quinze jours”, meaning that a party cannot validly request approval before the 15-day retraction period has expired (Cass. soc., 13 June 2018, appeal no. 16-24.830). In that case the administration had refused a first agreement because the severance was below the conventional minimum; the parties signed a second agreement with a higher amount but kept the expired retraction deadline of the first. The Court ruled the employee should have benefited from a fresh retraction period, declared the second agreement void, and treated the end of the contract as a dismissal without real and serious cause, ordering severance, notice and damages. The lesson for a founder abroad is direct: after any refusal, restart the full sequence with a new retraction period, and never backdate interviews, signatures or deadlines on the new form. Second, keep consent genuine. In a judgment of 23 January 2019 the same chamber corrected a court of appeal that had annulled a rupture merely because the employee proved moral harassment, without any defect of consent: the Court held that, and these are its words, “l’existence de faits de harcèlement moral n’affecte pas en elle-même la validité de la convention de rupture”, meaning that the existence of moral harassment facts does not in itself affect the validity of the agreement, where no vice of consent is established (Cass. soc., 23 January 2019, appeal no. 17-21.550). Harassment remains unlawful and can be punished as such, but it annuls the rupture only when it actually vitiated consent through fraud, violence or similar pressure. Document calm, unpressured interviews, and the agreement stands; exert pressure to force a signature, and it falls.

II. Pay the right severance and close the file so no labour court case follows

An approved agreement is not yet a closed file. The second half of the operation is financial and administrative: compute a severance that clears the legal floor, apply the correct tax and social treatment through payroll, deliver the end-of-contract documents, and organise the company so that a later challenge fails. Foreign founders sometimes treat the indemnity as a freely negotiated bonus. It is not. The amount is negotiated above a statutory minimum, the slice above that minimum is handled differently for tax and social charges, and the payslip, the DSN (déclaration sociale nominative, the monthly electronic payroll return through which the employer declares wages and contributions) and the final documents must reflect the operation exactly. Get this half right and the separation becomes what it should be: a former employee who received a fair sum, keeps unemployment rights, and has no reason to sue.

A. Compute a severance at or above the legal floor and run it correctly through payroll, tax and social charges

The floor first. Article L. 1234-9 of the Labour Code grants the dismissal indemnity to an employee on a permanent contract with at least 8 months of uninterrupted seniority with the same employer, except in cases of serious misconduct, and the rupture indemnity cannot fall below it. The rates are set by regulation: article R. 1234-2 of the Labour Code fixes them, word for word, at “Un quart de mois de salaire par année d’ancienneté pour les années jusqu’à dix ans”, one quarter of a month’s salary per year of seniority for the first ten years, and “Un tiers de mois de salaire par année d’ancienneté pour les années à partir de dix ans”, one third of a month’s salary per year beyond ten years, with pro-rata counting of complete months for incomplete years. Take a concrete example: your first employee earns 3,000 euros gross per month with two full years of seniority. The legal floor is 2 multiplied by one quarter of 3,000, which is 1,500 euros. If your sector collective agreement, the convention collective applicable to your company, provides a higher formula, that higher conventional amount becomes the floor, and the administration checks it: remember the 2018 case, where approval was refused precisely because the agreed sum sat below the conventional minimum. In practice, foreign employers usually offer more than the floor to secure a genuinely free consent and a fast signature, often several months of salary. That supplement is lawful and common, but it changes the tax and social treatment, so compute both slices separately: the slice corresponding to the legal or conventional minimum, and the negotiated supplement above it.

The tax and social treatment then follows the slices. The specific rupture indemnity is exempt from income tax within statutory ceilings, and partly exempt from employee and employer social contributions, from the CSG-CRDS (contribution sociale généralisée and contribution au remboursement de la dette sociale, the two social levies on income) and from the payroll declaration bases, again within ceilings that depend on the amounts and on whether the employee can claim a full pension. Above those ceilings, the surplus is taxable and subject to contributions like salary, and since 2023 a specific employer levy applies to rupture indemnities paid to employees who can already draw a full retirement pension. The exact ceilings move with the PASS (plafond annuel de la Sécurité sociale, the annual social security ceiling, 47,100 euros for 2025, updated each year) and with the employee’s situation, so do not apply a remembered percentage from another year or another country. Ask your French accountant or payroll provider to model the two slices before you sign, because the net amount the employee receives and the total cost to the company both depend on it, and the model should appear in the interview discussion so consent covers the real figures. Run the payment through the final payslip and the DSN like any wage item with its specific contribution codes, keep the payslip, the DSN acknowledgements and the transfer proof, and never pay the indemnity in cash or from a foreign account outside payroll: URSSAF (the contribution collection network) treats off-payroll payments as concealed wages, and the audit guide on facing a URSSAF audit from abroad shows how expensive that finding becomes. One further payroll point: the rupture indemnity does not replace the sums the employee has already earned. Untaken paid leave, the pro-rata contractual bonus, the compensatory payment for accrued RTT days where applicable, and the notice that is not worked are settled separately in the final payment, the solde de tout compte, and each line should be itemised so the employee understands what is severance and what is earned wage.

Timing matters as much as arithmetic. The severance is due at the end of the contract, which by law falls the day after approval at the earliest, and late payment produces interest and a credible grievance. If cash flow is tight, negotiate the termination date further out rather than promising a deferred indemnity the form does not provide for: a rupture date two or three months after the expected approval leaves time to fund the payment while keeping the procedure clean. Where the employee holds company equipment, access badges or a vehicle, organise restitution around the end date in a written inventory signed by both sides. And if the employee asks for a reference letter or an agreed description of the departure for future employers, provide a truthful one: it costs nothing and removes a frequent source of post-separation bitterness. By contrast, never make the signature conditional on the employee waiving in advance any right to challenge the agreement. Advance waivers of the right to sue are void in French employment law, and proposing one suggests the very pressure that annuls consent.

B. Deliver the closing documents and survive the 12-month challenge window

When the contract ends, three documents must be handed to the employee with the final payment: the certificat de travail (the employment certificate stating the positions held and the dates of employment), the attestation France Travail (the certificate for France Travail, the public employment service formerly called Pôle emploi, which allows the former employee to claim unemployment benefits), and the solde de tout compte (the itemised receipt for all sums paid at departure). Generate the attestation through the France Travail employer portal or your payroll software, transmit the DSN termination signals, and remove the employee from the registre unique du personnel (the single staff register every employer must keep) with the departure date. A rupture conventionnelle preserves unemployment rights, unlike a resignation, which is one reason employees accept it: make sure the France Travail attestation bears the correct reason for departure, because an error here delays benefits and creates the dispute you paid to avoid. If your employee was still in the trial period, the rupture conventionnelle was the wrong tool altogether: during the probationary period either side can end the contract under the lighter trial rules, as explained in the guide on managing the trial period from abroad, and signing a rupture conventionnelle for an employee who could simply be released wastes the severance and the approval procedure.

Then comes the quiet period. Article L. 1237-14 of the Labour Code closes its approval paragraph with the jurisdictional rule: “Tout litige concernant la convention, l’homologation ou le refus d’homologation relève de la compétence du conseil des prud’hommes”, meaning every dispute about the agreement, the approval or its refusal belongs to the labour court, the conseil de prud’hommes, the elected court that hears individual employment disputes. The employee has 12 months from the notification of the rupture to challenge it: article L. 1471-1 of the Labour Code states that “Toute action portant sur la rupture du contrat de travail se prescrit par douze mois à compter de la notification de la rupture”, meaning any action concerning the termination of the contract is time-barred 12 months after notification of the rupture. If the court annuls the agreement, for a missing interview, an indemnity below the floor, a truncated retraction period, an early filing, or a proven vice of consent, the rupture produces the effects of a dismissal without real and serious cause: back pay from the unlawful end date, payment in lieu of notice with its paid leave, the dismissal indemnity, and damages assessed under the statutory scale. The 2018 judgment ended exactly there. Your defence, if a claim ever comes, is the file you built at the time: dated interview invitations, the signed agreement with its two mandatory clauses, proof of the retraction computation, the TéléRC filing receipt, the approval or the expiry calculation, the payroll records and the closing documents. Keep that file for the limitation period and beyond, in the French company’s records, accessible even if you change accountant. Founders who instead need to end a contract for misconduct or for personal reasons such as poor performance face a different procedure with its own formalities, described in the guide on dismissing a French employee from abroad: never disguise a disciplinary dismissal as a friendly rupture, because a court that finds the consent was forced will reclassify the operation and add the sanctions for dismissal without cause to the sanctions for procedural breach.

Conclusion

The rupture conventionnelle is the French way to part on good terms: a real interview where the employee may come assisted, a written agreement that states a severance at or above the legal floor and an end date after the approval, 15 calendar days during which either side may withdraw, then a 15-working-day examination by the DREETS with silence counting as approval. From abroad, the discipline is the same as from Paris, with one extra requirement: organise every step so it leaves a dated trace, from the interview invitation to the TéléRC receipt, because distance makes oral arrangements unverifiable. Price the severance honestly with your accountant before signing, pay it through payroll with the final documents, and keep the complete file for the 12-month challenge period. Handled this way, the separation gives the employee money and unemployment rights, gives the company a clean departure without a dismissal procedure, and gives both sides the one thing a labour dispute can never provide: a certain end date.