You have been hired in France. Perhaps a Paris start-up offered you a permanent contract, perhaps a Lyon restaurant took you on for the season, perhaps you followed your partner to Bordeaux and found a local employer willing to sponsor your paperwork. Since Brexit, none of this happens on the same terms as before: you are a third-country national, your right to work depends on your visa and residence permit, and your employment contract is governed in full by French labour law, the Code du travail, which works very differently from UK employment law. The good news is that French law protects employees energetically once the contract exists, whether you are French or British, and it gives you a specialised court, the conseil de prud’hommes, the labour court, to challenge an unfair dismissal and claim severance. This guide explains, in plain English with UK spelling throughout, what a British employee must check on arrival, how a lawful dismissal must be conducted, how statutory severance is calculated, and how to bring a claim before the labour court within the strict time limit. If your residence paperwork is still unsettled, read first our arrival guide on which long-stay visa and which carte de séjour a British newcomer needs after Brexit, because without the correct work authorisation even the best employment claim starts on fragile ground. Readers employed directly by a British company while living in France face a different construction, French payroll without a French contract, described in our guide on remote work for a UK employer with French payroll registration. This article deals with the standard and far more common case: you work in France for an employer established in France under a French contract.

I. Your French employment contract and payslips: what documents prove you are properly hired

A. The written contract, the DPAE hiring declaration and the monthly payslip: how do you know the job is genuine

Under French law the open-ended contract, known as the CDI, contrat à durée indéterminée, meaning a contract with no fixed end date, is the normal and default form of employment. A fixed-term contract, the CDD, contrat à durée déterminée, is lawful only in exhaustively listed cases such as replacing an absent employee or a temporary increase in activity, and it must be in writing with a precise end date or minimum duration and a stated reason. An offer made by email or a handshake in a cafe does not satisfy the employer, and for a British recruit it is never enough: insist on a signed written contract before you resign your UK position or relocate your family. The contract should state your job title and classification, your workplace, your working hours, your gross salary, the applicable collective agreement, the convention collective, which is the sector-wide agreement setting pay scales and guarantees on top of the statute, and the length of any probation period, the période d’essai. If no probation is written into the contract or the letter of engagement, there is no probation, and your employment is confirmed from the first day.

Before your first morning at work, the employer must file a prior hiring declaration, the DPAE, déclaration préalable à l’embauche, with the URSSAF, the body that collects social contributions. This single declaration registers you for social security, and the employer must give you a copy or a receipt confirmation. Ask for it expressly. An employer who puts you to work without this declaration is operating undeclared labour, travail dissimulé, formerly called travail au noir, and exposes itself to criminal and administrative penalties. For you as a British employee, the DPAE receipt is also practical evidence: combined with your payslips, it proves the reality and start date of your employment if any dispute later arises about seniority, and seniority drives almost every euro of severance described in the second part of this guide.

Each month you must receive a payslip, the bulletin de paie, with mandatory entries: the identity of the employer and the employee, your social security number once allocated, your job classification and position under the convention collective, the number of hours worked, the gross salary, the social contributions deducted line by line, the net social amount, the net taxable amount, the net pay before income tax withholding, and the income tax deducted at source through the prélèvement à la source system. Keep every payslip permanently, in paper or PDF. In France limitation periods and severance calculations run from these documents: the reference salary for statutory severance is the gross pay shown on them, and the labour court will ask for your last twelve payslips as the first exhibit. Open a dedicated folder from month one, payslips, contract, amendments, emails about duties and hours, medical certificates if any, and the annual summary of working time if you are on a forfait, a fixed-days arrangement for managers. British employees sometimes discard payslips because the UK P60 habit makes a single annual form feel sufficient. Do not carry that habit into France: here the monthly bulletin de paie is the proof of everything.

Check also that your residence status authorises you to do this exact job. A salaried employee normally needs a visa mentioning employed work and then a carte de séjour, a residence permit, authorising salaried activity, or an EU Blue Card for highly qualified employment. Working on a visitor status, or on a permit tied to a different employer, exposes you to a refusal at renewal and to an obligation to leave France, an OQTF, obligation de quitter le territoire français. The immigration side is developed in our newcomer guide linked in the introduction. On the employment side, remember the symmetry: an employer who knowingly employs a foreign worker without work authorisation commits a criminal offence and pays a special contribution to the Office for Immigration, while the employee loses no labour rights over wages already earned. Your salary for work performed remains due in full even if the paperwork was defective, and the labour court remains competent to award it.

B. Probation, working time and the minimum wage: which everyday rules apply from your first day

The probation period, the période d’essai, allows each side to test the relationship, and during it the contract can be ended with short notice and without the dismissal procedure. Its maximum length depends on your category: two months for manual and clerical staff, three months for supervisors and technicians, four months for managers and executives, renewable once if the branch agreement and the contract both allow renewal. These are ceilings, not floors: your contract can provide shorter periods, and many do. At the end of probation, termination requires the full dismissal procedure examined in Part II, and ending the contract on the last day of probation to escape that procedure is a classic dispute. If the employer keeps you one day beyond the agreed probation end date without a valid renewal signed before expiry, you are a confirmed employee with full dismissal protection, and any later rupture must follow the formal route.

French working time starts from a legal baseline of thirty-five hours per week for full-time work, and hours beyond that are overtime, heures supplémentaires, paid with statutory uplifts, generally twenty-five per cent for the first eight overtime hours and fifty per cent beyond, unless the convention collective sets different rates within legal bounds. Night work, Sunday work and work on public holidays follow specific regimes with additional pay or compensatory rest, and the employer must track your hours. Annual leave accrues at two and a half working days per month of work, giving thirty working days, equivalent to five weeks, for a full year, and leave not taken carries over only under conditions set by case law and agreements, so plan holidays early rather than accumulating them. The national minimum wage, the SMIC, salaire minimum interprofessionnel de croissance, is revalued automatically and stood above eleven euros gross per hour in recent years: your contract cannot pay below it, and many conventions collectives impose higher minima by grade. If your payslip shows a basic rate below the SMIC or below your conventional minimum, the arrears are recoverable before the labour court within the two-year period for wage claims, a longer period than the twelve-month period for challenging the rupture itself, a distinction that matters when you frame your claim.

Sick leave follows its own logic that surprises many British arrivals. You must send the medical certificate, the arrêt de travail, to your employer and to the health insurance fund, the CPAM, caisse primaire d’assurance maladie, within forty-eight hours, and daily allowances, indemnités journalieres, are paid by the fund only if you meet the contribution conditions, with a waiting period of three days in most cases, topped up by the employer after one year of seniority under the monthly guarantee scheme. Keep copies of every certificate and every statement of allowances. Dismissal during sick leave is heavily restricted, and a dismissal pronounced because of your state of health is discriminatory and void, opening the nullity regime with its minimum award of six months’ wages, described in Part II. This is one reason the documentary discipline recommended above pays for itself: the employees who win before the prud’hommes are almost always the ones whose folders are complete, with dated contracts, payslips, medical certificates and the employer’s letters in chronological order.

II. When your French employer dismisses you: procedure, severance pay and the prud’hommes challenge

A. The dismissal procedure and the severance calculation: which letters, which deadlines and how much money

French law distinguishes dismissals for personal reasons, such as misconduct, poor performance or unfitness, from dismissals for economic reasons, which follow a heavier collective procedure with redeployment obligations and, in larger firms, a job protection plan. Both routes share one non-negotiable spine for personal dismissals: the employer must first invite you to a preliminary meeting. The statute provides, in its exact words: “L’employeur qui envisage de licencier un salarié le convoque, avant toute décision, à un entretien préalable.” The invitation must be sent by registered letter or handed to you personally against a signed receipt, and it must state that dismissal is contemplated. The meeting itself is fenced with a waiting period, again in the exact statutory words: “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.” You may attend alone or be assisted by a staff member of the company or, where there is no staff representative, by an outside staff adviser, the conseiller du salarié, listed by the prefecture. Go to the meeting, listen, and take notes: anything you say can clarify the file, and anything the employer fails to put to you narrows what it can later rely upon. The full text is freely verifiable on the official statute site at article L1232-2 of the Labour Code.

After the meeting, the employer cannot post the dismissal letter immediately. The statute again fixes the sequence in exact terms: “Lorsque l’employeur décide de licencier un salarié, il lui notifie sa décision par lettre recommandée avec avis de réception.” The letter must state the grounds, in the exact words of the law: “Cette lettre comporte l’énoncé du ou des motifs invoqués par l’employeur.” And timing is controlled: “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.” Read those three sentences twice, because they decide most cases. A dismissal letter that gives no reason, a vague reason such as loss of confidence without facts, or a reason the employer never raised at the meeting, is vulnerable. The official wording is published at article L1232-6 of the Labour Code, and the Cour de cassation, the supreme court for civil and criminal matters, enforces it strictly: in the exact words of its social chamber, “Selon ce texte, lorsque l’employeur décide de licencier un salarié, il lui notifie sa décision par lettre recommandée avec avis de réception. Cette lettre comporte l’énoncé du ou des motifs invoqués par l’employeur.” That reminder comes from Social chamber, 22 October 2025, appeal no. 24-17.333, where the Court quashed reasoning that had assessed the dismissal against the wrong employer without examining the stated grounds. Practical consequence for you: the letter fixes the dispute. Keep the envelope with its postmark, photograph the letter, and show both to your adviser quickly, because every later deadline runs from notification.

Money then falls into three layers that must not be confused: the notice and end-of-contract documents, the statutory severance, and the damages for an unfair dismissal. During the notice period, the préavis, you remain paid and, unless the employer releases you, you keep working; unused paid leave is compensated as an indemnité compensatrice de congés payés. At departure the employer must hand over the final pay statement, the solde de tout compte, the work certificate, and the France Travail attestation, the certificate for the employment service, formerly Pole emploi, which conditions your unemployment benefit. Check these papers line by line before signing any receipt: the solde de tout compte can become conclusive if signed without reservation after the six-month challenge period, so add handwritten reservations on any disputed line rather than refusing to sign.

The statutory severance, the indemnité legale de licenciement, is due to any employee on an open-ended contract with at least eight months of uninterrupted service, except in cases of gross or wilful misconduct. The statute states in exact terms: “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.” The calculation rate is regulatory, and the regulation sets a floor in exact words: “L’indemnité de licenciement ne peut être inférieure aux montants suivants : 1° Un quart de mois de salaire par année d’ancienneté pour les années jusqu’à dix ans ; 2° Un tiers de mois de salaire par année d’ancienneté pour les années à partir de dix ans.” Take a concrete example. A British marketing manager with four years of service and a reference gross salary of three thousand five hundred euros per month, the average of the last twelve months or the last three months whichever is more favourable, receives at least one quarter of a month per year, hence one full month, three thousand five hundred euros, before any contractual or conventional top-up. With twelve years at four thousand euros, the floor equals ten years at one quarter plus two years at one third, that is two and a half months plus two thirds of a month, about twelve thousand six hundred and sixty-seven euros. Many conventions collectives and company agreements pay more, and any contractual severance above the floor replaces it rather than adding to it, so compare the three sources, statute, branch agreement, contract, and claim the highest. The official texts are at article L1234-9 of the Labour Code and article R1234-2 of the Labour Code. For the benefit system after dismissal, the official UK starting point for Britons abroad is the gov.uk Living in France guide, to be read alongside the French service-public pages on dismissal.

B. Challenging the dismissal before the conseil de prud’hommes: how to file, what the judges can award, and where in Paris and Ile-de-France

The conseil de prud’hommes, the elected labour court with employer and employee judges, is your court. Its statutory mission is stated in exact words: “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.” And if settlement fails: “Il juge les litiges lorsque la conciliation n’a pas abouti.” File at the court of the place where you worked or where the employer is established, in English terms the tribunal of the workplace. Representation by a lawyer is not compulsory, and you may be assisted by a union defender or a colleague, but British claimants unfamiliar with French procedure and French-language hearings are strongly advised to instruct counsel early, because the written submissions frame the award and translation at the hearing is your responsibility to organise. The official definition sits at article L1411-1 of the Labour Code. The case starts with a claim form, the requête, listing each head of claim with figures, followed by a conciliation hearing before the bureau de conciliation et d’orientation, the conciliation panel, which must first attempt settlement and can order interim payments and document disclosure. If no settlement is reached, the case moves to the judgment panel, and appeals go to the cour d’appel, the court of appeal, with further review possible before the Cour de cassation.

Watch the clock above all else. The statute provides in exact words: “Toute action portant sur la rupture du contrat de travail se prescrit par douze mois à compter de la notification de la rupture.” Twelve months from notification of the rupture, not from your last payslip, not from the end of negotiations, not from the date you return to the UK. A claim filed on the thirteenth month is out of time, and the court must declare it inadmissible even if the dismissal was plainly unfair. Wage arrears mentioned in Part I benefit from a two-year period, which is why careful claimants plead rupture claims and wage claims separately. Diarise the anniversary the day you receive the letter, instruct your adviser within weeks rather than months, and if settlement talks are ongoing, file protectively before the deadline: filing interrupts prescription, talking does not. The official text is at article L1471-1 of the Labour Code.

If the dismissal has no real and serious cause, the court can first propose reinstatement with preserved benefits, and where either side refuses, it awards damages within a statutory scale, the barème Macron, the Macron scale. The statute opens in exact terms: “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.” It continues: “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.” The table then runs from a maximum of one month for zero full years of service up to twenty months from thirty years, with a minimum of three months once two years of service are reached, and reduced minima in firms with fewer than eleven employees. In the exact restatement given by the Cour de cassation: “si le licenciement d’un salarié survient pour une cause qui n’est pas réelle et sérieuse, le juge octroie au salarié une indemnité à la charge de l’employeur, dont le montant est compris entre des montants minimaux et maximaux fixés par ce texte.” That sentence, and the validation that follows, come from Social chamber, 9 April 2025, appeal no. 24-13.958, which holds in exact words that “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 ILO Convention no. 158 on termination of employment, ending years of argument that the scale breached international law. The statutory table itself is published at article L1235-3 of the Labour Code. A separate and more generous regime applies where the dismissal is void, for breach of a fundamental freedom, moral or sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation for legal action on equal treatment or for reporting crimes, dismissal of a protected employee because of the mandate, or dismissal in breach of maternity and occupational injury protections. There the statutory scale falls away where the judge finds the dismissal affected by one of the nullities listed in the second paragraph of the article. And the floor is heavy, in the exact statutory words: the judge awards compensation “qui ne peut être inférieure aux salaires des six derniers mois.” The full list is at article L1235-3-1 of the Labour Code. In practice this means a British claimant should always plead, in the alternative, the facts that could lift the case out of the scale: the discriminatory remark about the accent or the pregnancy, the dismissal days after a harassment complaint, the medical file showing the real motive. Even where nullity is not retained, those facts colour the assessment of the real and serious cause and push the award towards the top of the scale.

For readers in Paris and Ile-de-France, two practical points strengthen the claim. First, jurisdiction: employees working in Paris file at the Paris labour court near Porte de Clichy, while those in the inner suburbs file at Nanterre, Bobigny or Creteil according to the workplace, and the correct court must appear on the claim form because an error costs months. Second, evidence: Paris-region judges expect a paginated, indexed bundle with the contract, the DPAE receipt or hiring proof, the last twelve payslips, the invitation to the preliminary meeting with its envelope, the dismissal letter with its envelope, the end-of-contract documents, and a dated chronology in French. Prepare a one-page French timeline now, even if the argument at the hearing needs an interpreter: embauche le, entretien le, notification le, solde le. That discipline, plus filing inside the twelve-month period, is what turns a British employee’s legitimate sense of unfairness, shaped by UK concepts of reasonableness and the ACAS code, into a French award expressed in months of gross salary. UK unfair dismissal reasoning does not travel; French procedural defects and the statutory scale do.

Conclusion

A British employee in France stands on strong ground once the contract is properly documented: the written CDI or CDD, the DPAE receipt, and complete monthly payslips establish seniority and salary, the two numbers from which every euro flows. The dismissal procedure is then a fixed track, preliminary meeting with five working days’ notice, reasoned notification by recorded delivery at least two working days later, and a letter whose stated grounds freeze the dispute. Statutory severance follows the quarter-month and third-month formula, branch agreements often improve it, and unfair dismissal damages sit within the Macron scale unless nullity lifts the floor to six months. The labour court enforces all of it, but only within twelve months of notification. Keep your papers, calendar your deadline, plead wage and rupture claims distinctly, and raise nullity facts where they exist. French employment litigation rewards the organised claimant, and organisation starts on the first day of work, not the day of the dismissal letter.