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The French Supreme Court ruled on March 6, 2024 (n°22-11.016), that an employer cannot terminate an employee who has sent racist and xenophobic messages to a colleague via the professional email system,  if the messages were private.

Facts:

Due to an error made by one of the recipients of the emails, the employer became aware of the emails sent by the employee to his colleagues. The employee was dismissed for gross misconduct and challenged his dismissal by claiming that the employer has violated his private life as the emails were titled “personal and confidential”.

In return, the employer argued that, in accordance with the French Supreme Court’s rulings, a reason relating to an employee’s personal life can justify disciplinary dismissal if it constitutes a breach of an obligation arising from the employee’s employment contract.

Therefore, the employer claimed that the employee breached his employment contract’s obligations by sending racist and xenophobic emails via the professional email system.

The employer also argued that the employee abused the professional email system for personal purposes.Continue Reading No disciplinary action for sending private racist messages via the professional email system

In two decisions both rendered on 17 July 2019, the French Supreme Court ruled that the Macron scale (a mechanism introduced on 24 September 2017 to provide for caps and floors on damages for unfair dismissal) complies with international conventions ratified by the French government. These decisions were rendered through a specific procedure (demande d’avis) in which the French Supreme Court does not judge a case but is invited to take a legal position on a specific issue in order to harmonize legal practice.

These decisions should have ended the dissension of several French industrial tribunals which had set aside the Macron scale, considering it to be in breach of article 10 of the Termination of Employment Convention of the International Labor Organization and article 24 of the European Social Charter, both of which provide for adequate protection and appropriate compensation in the event of unfair dismissal.
Continue Reading Macron scale of damages for unfair dismissal: the lower French industrial tribunals strike back

U.S. employers with French operations must focus carefully on their investments or divestment operations. Through the “joint employer theory,” employees of a French company can now pierce its corporate veil to hold the ultimate parent, even one based in the United States, liable for restructuring costs, including severance packages and damages for unfair dismissal.…