Labor & Employment

In a ruling dated December 15, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) upheld the decision of a Court of Appeals that had ordered an employer to pay back pay for variable remuneration, the objectives of which were neither realistic nor revised every year.

Variable remuneration, whenever provided for in the employment contract, is a component of the salary that makes it possible to determine compliance with the minimum salary provided for by law or the applicable collective bargaining agreement .

The payment of this variable remuneration is in principle conditional upon the achievement of annual objectives by the employee.

In a ruling dated December 15, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) overturned the decision of a Court of Appeals that had awarded an employee compensation for dismissal without real and serious cause in excess of the so-called “Macron scale”.

Since the publication of the Ordinances of September 22, 2017 which introduced minimum and maximum amounts of compensation that can be awarded for a dismissal held without real and serious cause, French courts have dealt with numerous attempts to have this scale declared illegal, in particular the compensation ceilings determined according to the employee’s seniority within the company at the date of the termination of his/her employment contract.

The employment contract of a part-time employee must fix the weekly or monthly distribution of working hours, failing which the part-time contract is to be reclassified as a full-time one.

In a decision dated November 17, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) strictly applied the provisions of Article L.3123-6 of the French Labor Code that lists the mandatory information to be included in a part-time employment contract.

The change of an employee’s place of work at the same time as the implementation of a lay-off plan constitutes an abuse of the employer’s power of direction.

The French Government has renewed the possibility for companies to pay to their employees a bonus exempted from taxes and social security contributions for the period between June 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022.

When a part-time employee exceptionally works more than 35 hours in a week, his/her contract must be reclassified as a full-time contract, even if the number of working hours provided for in his/her contract is fixed on a monthly basis.