{"id":2131718,"date":"2026-09-26T13:56:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/09\/26\/foreign-company-france-employee-unfit-inaptitude-reclassify-dismiss-abroad\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T13:56:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T11:56:44","slug":"foreign-company-france-employee-unfit-inaptitude-reclassify-dismiss-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/26\/foreign-company-france-employee-unfit-inaptitude-reclassify-dismiss-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Your French Employee Is Declared Unfit for Work While You Live Abroad: Reclassification, Dismissal and the One-Month Pay Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your first French hire has been on sick leave for weeks. The pay slips kept going out, the <em>DSN<\/em> (the monthly online payroll return through which your payroll provider declares wages and social charges) kept recording the absence, and then an email arrives from your accountant: the employee has been declared <em>inapte<\/em> \u2014 medically unfit \u2014 and you must now either find this person another job inside your business or dismiss them through a procedure that has nothing in common with an ordinary firing. You live in London, New York, Toronto or Dubai. You have one employee in France, no human-resources department, and no idea what the French occupational doctor expects from you. Meanwhile a silent clock has started: one month after the medical examination, if the employee is neither reclassified nor dismissed, you must resume paying the full salary for work you will never receive.<\/p>\n<p>French law treats medical unfitness as a protected status, not as a performance problem. The <em>m\u00e9decin du travail<\/em> (the occupational doctor employed by the <em>SPST<\/em>, the prevention and occupational-health service your company pays for) alone decides whether your employee can stay in their job, and the <em>Code du travail<\/em> (the French Labour Code) then forces you through a rigid sequence \u2014 study the notice, search seriously for another position, consult the staff representatives if you have any, and only then dismiss, with a dismissal letter that states one of three legally accepted justifications. Skip the search, miss the one-month deadline, or write the wrong reason in the letter, and the dismissal is declared without real and serious cause, which opens the Macron damages scale plus back pay. This guide walks you through each step in business language, with the exact statutory wording your counsel will rely on, three recent Cour de cassation rulings you can cite, and the practical moves a non-resident employer can run from abroad. For the full journey from incorporation to first payroll, start with our hub guide on <a href=\"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/03\/setting-up-company-france-foreign-founder-bank-account-kbis-vat-first-hire\/\">setting up a company in France as a foreign founder<\/a>, and for the day-to-day rules that applied before the sick leave, see our companion guide on <a href=\"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/23\/foreign-company-france-first-employee-overtime-35-hour-rates-proof-abroad\/\">your first French employee, overtime and time records<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>I. Your French Employee Is Declared Unfit: What the Doctor&#8217;s Notice Means and How to Challenge It<\/h2>\n<h3>A. What Makes an Unfitness Notice Valid: Job Study, Written Findings and Reclassification Guidance<\/h3>\n<p>Nothing in this procedure starts with you. It starts with the employee&#8217;s return-to-work medical examination \u2014 the <em>visite de reprise<\/em> \u2014 organised by the SPST after a sick leave, a maternity leave or a work accident absence. Only the occupational doctor can declare unfitness, and the statute micromanages how the doctor must reach that conclusion. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033024926\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033024926\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L4624-4 of the Labour Code<\/a> provides: &#8220;Apr\u00e8s avoir proc\u00e9d\u00e9 ou fait proc\u00e9der par un membre de l&#8217;\u00e9quipe pluridisciplinaire \u00e0 une \u00e9tude de poste et apr\u00e8s avoir \u00e9chang\u00e9 avec le salari\u00e9 et l&#8217;employeur, le m\u00e9decin du travail qui constate qu&#8217;aucune mesure d&#8217;am\u00e9nagement, d&#8217;adaptation ou de transformation du poste de travail occup\u00e9 n&#8217;est possible et que l&#8217;\u00e9tat de sant\u00e9 du travailleur justifie un changement de poste d\u00e9clare le travailleur inapte \u00e0 son poste de travail.&#8221; Three safeguards sit inside that single sentence, and each of them matters to you as the employer. First, someone must actually study the workstation \u2014 the <em>\u00e9tude de poste<\/em> \u2014 so an unfitness declared without any examination of the real working conditions is vulnerable. Second, the doctor must exchange with both the employee and you, the employer, which means your written description of the job, the duties, the possible adjustments and the constraints of a one-person French operation belongs in the file before the notice is issued, not after. Third, the doctor must positively find that no adjustment, adaptation or transformation of the current position is possible; unfitness is legally a last resort, not a routine label.<\/p>\n<p>The same provision adds a second paragraph that shapes everything that follows; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033024926\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033024926\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L4624-4 of the Labour Code<\/a> continues: &#8220;L&#8217;avis d&#8217;inaptitude rendu par le m\u00e9decin du travail est \u00e9clair\u00e9 par des conclusions \u00e9crites, assorties d&#8217;indications relatives au reclassement du travailleur.&#8221; Read the written findings \u2014 the <em>conclusions \u00e9crites<\/em> \u2014 the day you receive them, and read them literally. They tell you what the employee can still do, what is forbidden, whether training for an adapted position is conceivable, and sometimes the decisive sentence for a small employer: an express statement that any continued employment would seriously harm the employee&#8217;s health, or that the health condition blocks any reclassification at all. That express mention \u2014 the <em>mention expresse<\/em> \u2014 is the only document that can release you from the reclassification search described in Part II, as the Cour de cassation confirmed word for word: &#8220;La cour d&#8217;appel en a exactement d\u00e9duit que l&#8217;employeur \u00e9tait dispens\u00e9 de rechercher et de proposer \u00e0 la salari\u00e9e des postes de reclassement&#8221; (Cour de cassation, social chamber, 8 February 2023, no. 21-19.232, available at <a href=\"https:\/\/courdecassation.fr\/decision\/63e34cd0500dc805de37cd9f\">courdecassation.fr<\/a>). Without that sentence, the search is mandatory even if your French business employs exactly one person and you are convinced no other job exists. With it, keep the notice like gold, because the dismissal letter will quote it.<\/p>\n<p>Two frequent traps deserve a paragraph each because foreign employers fall into them constantly. The first is confusing the phases: during the sick leave itself, the contract is suspended, you pay no salary (the daily allowances come from the health insurance), and you cannot dismiss for the illness or the absence. The unfitness procedure only opens at the return-to-work examination, and dismissing during the suspension for a reason linked to the health condition is discriminatory and void. The second trap is the origin of the unfitness. French law runs two parallel tracks with different price tags: non-occupational illness or accident (the ordinary case, governed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035653236\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035653236\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Articles L1226-2 to L1226-4-4<\/a>) and work accident or occupational disease (governed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033024893\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033024893\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Articles L1226-10 to L1226-22<\/a>, with a doubled severance payment under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000006900981\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000006900981\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-14<\/a>). Ask your accountant and the SPST immediately which track your file sits on, because the origin determines the severance math in Part II and because an employee whose condition looks private may argue it is work-related. If the origin is disputed, do not decide the point yourself from abroad; that dispute belongs to the health-insurance and labour courts, while your reclassification duty runs in parallel.<\/p>\n<p>From abroad, your first-week file is therefore a reading and writing exercise, not a decision. Collect the unfitness notice, the written findings, the job-study report if one exists, the sick-leave history and the job description. Send the SPST a short dated letter \u2014 email with acknowledgment is fine \u2014 describing the company (single French employee, activity, premises, organisation), listing every position that exists in France, stating factually whether adjustments were already tried, and asking the doctor to clarify in writing any ambiguity about residual capacities or the scope of the express mention. That letter costs nothing and does three jobs at once: it feeds the doctor the employer-side exchange the statute requires, it starts your written proof of a serious reclassification search, and it fixes the facts in writing before memories fade. If the notice already contains the express mention blocking any reclassification, move to the dismissal track with counsel; if it does not, or if it limits the blockage to one site while you operate several, the search duty is live, and Part II explains how to run it.<\/p>\n<h3>B. How to Contest the Doctor&#8217;s Notice Before the Labour Court From Abroad<\/h3>\n<p>Sometimes the notice is simply wrong: no job study was done, the findings contradict the medical reality your employee shows every day, the restrictions described do not match the position, or the express mention is missing or ambiguous in a way that forces you into a futile months-long search. The employer has the same right as the employee to challenge the notice, and the challenge goes to the <em>conseil de prud&#8217;hommes<\/em> (the French labour court, the elected-judge tribunal that hears all individual employment disputes) in fast-track proceedings. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000043894091\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000043894091\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L4624-7 of the Labour Code<\/a> provides: &#8220;Le salari\u00e9 ou l&#8217;employeur peut saisir le conseil de prud&#8217;hommes selon la proc\u00e9dure acc\u00e9l\u00e9r\u00e9e au fond d&#8217;une contestation portant sur les avis, propositions, conclusions \u00e9crites ou indications \u00e9mis par le m\u00e9decin du travail reposant sur des \u00e9l\u00e9ments de nature m\u00e9dicale&#8221; \u2014 the challenge covers medical-based notices issued under Articles L. 4624-2, L. 4624-3 and L. 4624-4. The same article adds the sentence that gives the challenge its teeth: &#8220;La d\u00e9cision du conseil de prud&#8217;hommes se substitue aux avis, propositions, conclusions \u00e9crites ou indications contest\u00e9s.&#8221; The court does not merely annul; it replaces the doctor&#8217;s assessment with its own, after entrusting an expert review to the <em>m\u00e9decin inspecteur du travail<\/em> (the labour inspectorate doctor), whose technical findings illuminate the judges on the medical facts.<\/p>\n<p>Three practical consequences follow for a non-resident employer. First, speed matters more than perfection: the challenge runs on a short time limit that starts when the notice is notified, so the week you spend wondering whether to contest is the week that can close the door. Instruct French counsel the day the notice arrives if anything looks contestable, and let counsel file while you gather evidence from abroad. Second, contesting does not automatically suspend your parallel duties, so coordinate the two tracks explicitly with counsel: the reclassification search and the one-month salary clock keep running while the court case proceeds, and stopping the search because &#8220;we challenged the notice&#8221; is exactly how employers manufacture a no-real-and-serious-cause finding against themselves. The safe posture is to challenge and search at the same time, documenting that any dismissal remains conditional on the outcome where the strategy requires it. Third, distance is no obstacle to the case itself: your lawyer represents you, the expert examination concerns the employee and the workstation in France, and your contribution \u2014 job descriptions, adjustment history, organisational charts, correspondence with the SPST \u2014 travels by email. You will almost certainly never need to attend.<\/p>\n<p>A short word on geography, because it strengthens the file. If the workplace is in Paris or the inner suburbs, the competent court is the <em>Conseil de prud&#8217;hommes de Paris<\/em> (19 boulevard de la Villette), which runs a dedicated fast-track docket for medical-notice disputes and appoints the territorially competent inspectorate doctor; file there, not at the company&#8217;s registered address if the two differ, because jurisdiction follows the place of work. Paris SPST services (<em>SPSTI<\/em>) are also accustomed to single-employee foreign subsidiaries and generally respond faster to a structured employer letter describing the organisation than to silence followed by a dispute. Mentioning the Paris establishment, the SPST involved and the applicable timetable in your correspondence shows the judges a diligent foreign employer, which is precisely the impression that decides close cases on the seriousness of the search. And if the employee works elsewhere in \u00cele-de-France, the same logic applies to the prud&#8217;hommes of Boulogne-Billancourt, Nanterre, Bobigny, Cr\u00e9teil or Versailles selon the d\u00e9partement of the workplace \u2014 verify the venue once, then stop worrying about it.<\/p>\n<p>Do not contest reflexively. A challenge makes sense when the notice is technically defective (no job study, no exchange with the employer, missing written findings), when the restrictions are incoherent with the position and a corrected notice could keep the employee at work, or when an ambiguous mention forces an impossible search that a clarified notice would close. A challenge makes little sense when the medical situation is undisputed and only the consequences are painful \u2014 in that case the energy belongs in the reclassification file, not in court. Your counsel&#8217;s first memo should therefore answer one question before any filing: what better notice could the court realistically substitute, and would that notice change what you must do? If the answer is nothing, search and dismiss cleanly instead of litigating the inevitable.<\/p>\n<h2>II. Reclassify or Dismiss Your Unfit Employee: The Search Duty, the One-Month Salary Trap and Severance<\/h2>\n<h3>A. Where and How to Search for Another Job Before Any Dismissal<\/h3>\n<p>The reclassification duty is the heart of the procedure and the point most foreign employers underestimate. Once unfitness is declared without a fully dispensing express mention, you must offer the employee another job suited to the remaining capacities, and you must do it before any dismissal. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035653236\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035653236\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-2 of the Labour Code<\/a> states the rule: &#8220;Lorsque le salari\u00e9 victime d&#8217;une maladie ou d&#8217;un accident non professionnel est d\u00e9clar\u00e9 inapte par le m\u00e9decin du travail&#8221; \u2014 expressly by reference to Article L. 4624-4 \u2014 &#8220;\u00e0 reprendre l&#8217;emploi qu&#8217;il occupait pr\u00e9c\u00e9demment, l&#8217;employeur lui propose un autre emploi appropri\u00e9 \u00e0 ses capacit\u00e9s, au sein de l&#8217;entreprise ou des entreprises du groupe auquel elle appartient le cas \u00e9ch\u00e9ant, situ\u00e9es sur le territoire national et dont l&#8217;organisation, les activit\u00e9s ou le lieu d&#8217;exploitation assurent la permutation de tout ou partie du personnel.&#8221; Every phrase carries weight. The requirement that the other job suit the remaining capacities means the proposal must fit the doctor&#8217;s written findings, not your commercial convenience. The search extends beyond the French subsidiary to the group \u2014 but only to entities located on French national territory, so your London, New York or Dubai entities are outside the perimeter, a point worth stating in writing when the employee demands a foreign posting. Only entities whose organisation, activities or operating site ensure the interchange of all or part of the staff count, which defines the group functionally through real staff mobility, not through shareholding charts alone.<\/p>\n<p>The statute then describes the quality of the offer; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035653236\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035653236\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-2<\/a> continues: &#8220;L&#8217;emploi propos\u00e9 est aussi comparable que possible \u00e0 l&#8217;emploi pr\u00e9c\u00e9demment occup\u00e9, au besoin par la mise en oeuvre de mesures telles que mutations, am\u00e9nagements, adaptations ou transformations de postes existants ou am\u00e9nagement du temps de travail.&#8221; Comparable pay and status as far as possible, real adjustments to existing posts, possible part-time adaptation \u2014 and the proposal must take into account &#8220;les conclusions \u00e9crites du m\u00e9decin du travail et les indications qu&#8217;il formule sur les capacit\u00e9s du salari\u00e9&#8221;, after the opinion of the <em>CSE<\/em> (the <em>comit\u00e9 social et \u00e9conomique<\/em>, the elected staff committee) where one exists. A one-employee company has no CSE, which simplifies the file, but every group entity with a CSE must be left to run its consultation before the offer crystallises. Concretely, from abroad, the search file is a dated paper trail: list every French position in the company and in each French group entity, match each against the doctor&#8217;s restrictions, request the SPST&#8217;s view on any borderline post, consult the CSEs where they exist, and send the employee each suitable offer in writing with the doctor&#8217;s findings attached. Unsuitable posts should be listed too, with one line explaining why the restrictions exclude them. Judges do not expect a five-person startup to invent a job; they expect proof that every existing job was examined against the medical findings.<\/p>\n<p>Only three exits excuse you from that search, and the dismissal letter must name the right one. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033013454\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033013454\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-2-1 of the Labour Code<\/a> provides: &#8220;Lorsqu&#8217;il est impossible \u00e0 l&#8217;employeur de proposer un autre emploi au salari\u00e9, il lui fait conna\u00eetre par \u00e9crit les motifs qui s&#8217;opposent \u00e0 son reclassement.&#8221; The same <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033013454\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033013454\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-2-1<\/a> then lists the only three lawful exits: proven impossibility of offering a compliant job, refusal by the employee of the offered job, or &#8220;la mention expresse dans l&#8217;avis du m\u00e9decin du travail que tout maintien du salari\u00e9 dans un emploi serait gravement pr\u00e9judiciable \u00e0 sa sant\u00e9 ou que l&#8217;\u00e9tat de sant\u00e9 du salari\u00e9 fait obstacle \u00e0 tout reclassement dans un emploi.&#8221; Impossibility proven in writing, refusal by the employee of a compliant offer, or the express mention \u2014 pick the one your file actually supports, because the letter sets the boundaries of the dispute and the judge will test the reason you wrote, not the better reason you thought of later. Two Cour de cassation rulings frame the trap from both sides. On the employer&#8217;s side, the express mention must be exactly that \u2014 express: the court approved dispensing with any search where &#8220;l&#8217;avis d&#8217;inaptitude mentionne express\u00e9ment que l&#8217;\u00e9tat de sant\u00e9 de la salari\u00e9e faisait obstacle \u00e0 tout reclassement dans l&#8217;emploi&#8221;, holding that &#8220;La cour d&#8217;appel en a exactement d\u00e9duit que l&#8217;employeur \u00e9tait dispens\u00e9 de rechercher et de proposer \u00e0 la salari\u00e9e des postes de reclassement&#8221; (8 February 2023, no. 21-19.232, at <a href=\"https:\/\/courdecassation.fr\/decision\/63e34cd0500dc805de37cd9f\">courdecassation.fr<\/a>). On the employee&#8217;s side, a mention limited to one site does not close the wider search: &#8220;La cour d&#8217;appel en a exactement d\u00e9duit que l&#8217;employeur n&#8217;\u00e9tait pas dispens\u00e9, par un avis d&#8217;inaptitude du m\u00e9decin du travail limit\u00e9 \u00e0 un seul site, de rechercher un reclassement hors de l&#8217;\u00e9tablissement auquel le salari\u00e9 \u00e9tait affect\u00e9 et avait ainsi manqu\u00e9 \u00e0 son obligation de reclassement&#8221; (13 December 2023, no. 22-19.603, at <a href=\"https:\/\/courdecassation.fr\/decision\/6579579bfa402b831859a61c\">courdecassation.fr<\/a>). Read your notice&#8217;s exact wording against those two holdings before choosing your exit: a site-limited mention with sister establishments in France means search on, not search over.<\/p>\n<p>For the foreign-owned single-employee company, the honest outcome is usually documented impossibility: one position exists, the doctor forbids its essential duties, no group entity operates in France, and the written findings exclude the only tasks available. That outcome still requires the full paper trail \u2014 group-structure note confirming no other French entity with staff mobility, list of the French positions examined, written impossibility notice to the employee \u2014 because &#8220;we are too small&#8221; is an argument, not a justification, until it is written, dated and sent. Where a French group does exist, extend the search in writing to each entity&#8217;s HR contact, keep their negative replies, and never let an intra-group email suggest a post was available but reserved for someone else. And if the employee refuses a compliant offer, secure the refusal in writing before dismissing: the refusal exit only works if the offer demonstrably complied with the doctor&#8217;s findings, so attach the findings to the offer letter and keep the proof of receipt. Official guidance on the dismissal mechanics is published by the administration on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.service-public.fr\/particuliers\/vosdroits\/N19806\">service-public.fr<\/a>, which you can show your foreign board alongside this guide.<\/p>\n<h3>B. When Salary Resumes After One Month and What the Dismissal Costs<\/h3>\n<p>The one-month rule is the most expensive sentence in this procedure, and it runs whether you are ready or not. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000025560071\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000025560071\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-4 of the Labour Code<\/a> provides: &#8220;Lorsque, \u00e0 l&#8217;issue d&#8217;un d\u00e9lai d&#8217;un mois \u00e0 compter de la date de l&#8217;examen m\u00e9dical de reprise du travail, le salari\u00e9 d\u00e9clar\u00e9 inapte n&#8217;est pas reclass\u00e9 dans l&#8217;entreprise ou s&#8217;il n&#8217;est pas licenci\u00e9, l&#8217;employeur lui verse, d\u00e8s l&#8217;expiration de ce d\u00e9lai, le salaire correspondant \u00e0 l&#8217;emploi que celui-ci occupait avant la suspension de son contrat de travail.&#8221; Full salary, for no work, until reclassification or dismissal \u2014 and the Cour de cassation applies the text without mercy, holding that &#8220;lorsque, \u00e0 l&#8217;issue d&#8217;un d\u00e9lai d&#8217;un mois \u00e0 compter de la date de l&#8217;examen m\u00e9dical de reprise du travail, le salari\u00e9 d\u00e9clar\u00e9 inapte n&#8217;est pas reclass\u00e9 dans l&#8217;entreprise ou s&#8217;il n&#8217;est pas licenci\u00e9, l&#8217;employeur lui verse, d\u00e8s l&#8217;expiration de ce d\u00e9lai, le salaire correspondant \u00e0 l&#8217;emploi que celui-ci occupait avant la suspension de son contrat de travail&#8221; (4 December 2024, no. 23-15.337, at <a href=\"https:\/\/courdecassation.fr\/decision\/674ffa6254dec7f341ee774a\">courdecassation.fr<\/a>). The starting point is the date of the return-to-work examination, not the date you received the notice, so log that date the day the SPST writes to you. Payroll must then resume the salary in the DSN even though the employee performs nothing, and every month of delay between month one and the dismissal notification is salary paid for nothing plus, symmetrically, evidence of a sloppy procedure that colours the whole file. The operational lesson is blunt: organise the search and the dismissal process to finish inside the month, and treat any overrun as a budgeted loss to be stopped fast, not as extra thinking time.<\/p>\n<p>The dismissal itself follows the ordinary personal-grounds procedure, with one major difference on notice. The foundation is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000019071126\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000019071126\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1232-1 of the Labour Code<\/a>: &#8220;Tout licenciement pour motif personnel est motiv\u00e9 dans les conditions d\u00e9finies par le pr\u00e9sent chapitre. Il est justifi\u00e9 par une cause r\u00e9elle et s\u00e9rieuse.&#8221; Invitation to a preliminary meeting (<em>entretien pr\u00e9alable<\/em>) by registered letter or hand delivery, minimum five working days before the meeting, the right for the employee to be assisted, then notification by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt stating precisely the chosen exit \u2014 impossibility documented in writing, refusal of the compliant offer, or the express mention quoted from the notice. The detailed steps sit in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000006901000\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000006901000\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1232-2<\/a> (invitation) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000036762096\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000036762096\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1232-6<\/a> (notification), and the official dismissal guide on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.service-public.fr\/particuliers\/vosdroits\/N19806\">service-public.fr<\/a> tracks them step by step. From abroad, the meeting is the delicate point: you are not required to fly in \u2014 a duly authorised representative (counsel, accountant with a written mandate) can hold it \u2014 but the representative must be able to listen, to record the employee&#8217;s statements, and to report back before you finalise the letter, because the letter must answer what was said at the meeting. Never pre-write the dismissal letter before the meeting date; a letter demonstrably decided in advance voids the procedure&#8217;s fairness.<\/p>\n<p>The severance math then depends on seniority and on the track. Every employee on an open-ended contract (<em>CDI<\/em>, <em>contrat \u00e0 dur\u00e9e ind\u00e9termin\u00e9e<\/em>) with at least eight months&#8217; uninterrupted seniority is entitled to the statutory severance. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035644154\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035644154\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1234-9 of the Labour Code<\/a> provides: &#8220;Le salari\u00e9 titulaire d&#8217;un contrat de travail \u00e0 dur\u00e9e ind\u00e9termin\u00e9e, licenci\u00e9 alors qu&#8217;il compte 8 mois d&#8217;anciennet\u00e9 ininterrompus au service du m\u00eame employeur, a droit, sauf en cas de faute grave, \u00e0 une indemnit\u00e9 de licenciement.&#8221; The floor amounts sit in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035644692\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035644692\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article R1234-2<\/a>: &#8220;L&#8217;indemnit\u00e9 de licenciement ne peut \u00eatre inf\u00e9rieure aux montants suivants : 1\u00b0 Un quart de mois de salaire par ann\u00e9e d&#8217;anciennet\u00e9 pour les ann\u00e9es jusqu&#8217;\u00e0 dix ans ; 2\u00b0 Un tiers de mois de salaire par ann\u00e9e d&#8217;anciennet\u00e9 pour les ann\u00e9es \u00e0 partir de dix ans.&#8221; Check the applicable collective agreement (<em>convention collective<\/em>) too, because sector minima frequently exceed the statutory floor and the employee gets the higher of the two. The notice period (<em>pr\u00e9avis<\/em>) is not worked in unfitness dismissals \u2014 the same <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000025560071\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000025560071\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-4<\/a> states: &#8220;En cas de licenciement, le pr\u00e9avis n&#8217;est pas ex\u00e9cut\u00e9 et le contrat de travail est rompu \u00e0 la date de notification du licenciement&#8221; \u2014 but it still counts for seniority and for computing the severance, and no payment in lieu is owed for the unworked part. Add the accrued paid-leave indemnity (<em>indemnit\u00e9 compensatrice de cong\u00e9s pay\u00e9s<\/em>), the final settlement (<em>solde de tout compte<\/em>), the employment certificate (<em>attestation France Travail<\/em>, formerly P\u00f4le emploi, for unemployment benefits) and the final DSN entries: a foreign employer whose French payroll provider handles these routinely avoids the late-document damages that routinely accompany unfitness disputes.<\/p>\n<p>Two cost multipliers close the picture. First, the occupational track doubles the bill: where the unfitness follows a work accident or occupational disease, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000006900981\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000006900981\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-14 of the Labour Code<\/a> provides that the termination &#8220;ouvre droit, pour le salari\u00e9, \u00e0 une indemnit\u00e9 compensatrice d&#8217;un montant \u00e9gal \u00e0 celui de l&#8217;indemnit\u00e9 compensatrice de pr\u00e9avis pr\u00e9vue \u00e0 l&#8217;article L. 1234-5 ainsi qu&#8217;\u00e0 une indemnit\u00e9 sp\u00e9ciale de licenciement qui, sauf dispositions conventionnelles plus favorables, est \u00e9gale au double de l&#8217;indemnit\u00e9 pr\u00e9vue par l&#8217;article L. 1234-9&#8221; \u2014 a notice-equivalent payment plus twice the statutory severance, which is why establishing the correct track early changes the provision by tens of thousands of euros. Second, a dismissal that fails the search test is declared without real and serious cause, and the judge then applies the Macron scale in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000036762052\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000036762052\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1235-3<\/a>, with minimum and maximum monthly-salary bands driven by seniority \u2014 on top of the resumed salary, the severance already paid, and possible orders to reimburse unemployment benefits. A failed unfitness dismissal is therefore the most expensive ordinary dismissal in French law: back salary from month one, full severance, scale damages, and documents penalties. That arithmetic is the business case for spending the search month properly rather than rushing a letter that the prud&#8217;hommes will undo.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>An unfitness finding against your only French employee is manageable from abroad if you treat it as a four-week project, not as correspondence. Week one: read the notice and the written findings literally, confirm the occupational or non-occupational track, write to the SPST describing your organisation, and instruct counsel if anything looks contestable before the labour court under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000043894091\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000043894091\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L4624-7<\/a>. Weeks two and three: run the documented reclassification search across every French entity required by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035653236\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035653236\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-2<\/a>, consulting the CSE where one exists, unless the notice carries the express mention that the Cour de cassation accepts as a dispensation (8 February 2023, no. 21-19.232) \u2014 and remember that a site-limited mention does not dispense with the wider search (13 December 2023, no. 22-19.603). Week four: hold the preliminary meeting through an authorised representative, notify the dismissal on exactly one of the three exits of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033013454\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033013454\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-2-1<\/a>, pay the statutory severance of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035644154\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035644154\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1234-9<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035644692\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000035644692\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article R1234-2<\/a> (doubled on the occupational track under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000006900981\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000006900981\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-14<\/a>), and issue the final documents. Above all, never let the one-month deadline of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000025560071\" class=\"kohen-legifrance-popup-link\" data-kohen-legifrance-url=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000025560071\" data-kohen-legifrance-title=\"Texte officiel Legifrance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Article L1226-4<\/a> pass in silence: salary resumed without work is the meter running on your delay, and the meter never runs backwards.<\/p>\n<h2>Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n<p>Your French employee has been declared unfit and you manage the company from abroad. The firm offers a phone consultation: 80 EUR including VAT, within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Call <a href=\"tel:+33646605822\">+33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> \u2014 Ma\u00eetre Reda Kohen. Send the unfitness notice, the doctor&#8217;s written findings and the employment contract through our <a href=\"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/formulaire-de-contact\/\">contact page<\/a> before the call so the advice is concrete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your French employee has been declared medically unfit (inapte) and you live abroad. This guide explains the reclassification search, the one-month salary trap, dismissal procedure and severance under French labour law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[80314,80313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2131718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.2 (Yoast SEO v28.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Your French Employee Is Declared Unfit for Work While You Live Abroad: Reclassification, Dismissal and the One-Month Pay Trap - Ma\u00eetre Reda Kohen, Real Estate and Business Law Attorney in Paris<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/26\/foreign-company-france-employee-unfit-inaptitude-reclassify-dismiss-abroad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Your French Employee Is Declared Unfit for Work While You Live Abroad: Reclassification, Dismissal and the One-Month Pay Trap\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your French employee has been declared medically unfit (inapte) and you live abroad. 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