Notice period in France

[Matt09H]

I have a problem in that I have found a job in UK and am currently working in France with an alleged 3month notice period. However, the company in UK wants me to start sooner.  I am British..

I would like to know what my rights are in France. I cannot see anything in the contract at work. It only states an agreed reasoable amount of time from both sides. HR told me that they don't need to state a time as the law states that it is 3 months so they don't need to cover that in the contract. I found a note on the US Embassy website saying that notice periods in France are between 1 and 3 months.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I would like to know what my rights are. It seems that the company is using a 3months notice period which has never been written into contracts and may not be legal. 3months notice would cause me to lose the opportunity in UK.

Or does anyone know a good source where I can find the answer to this question?

[Clair]

I have done a quick search, as I think that the period notice varies according to the type of job. This seems to confirm it:

[quote]Le préavis

quant à lui voit sa durée fixée par la convention collective ou les

usages de la profession (pour certaines professions la durée du préavis

est fixée par la loi mais ce cas de figure reste rare).

Ce préavis est généralement d’une semaine pour les ouvriers, d’un mois

pour les employés, agents de maîtrise et techniciens et de trois mois

pour les ingénieurs et cadres.

Toutefois il est possible de négocier avec votre employeur pour ne pas

effectuer de préavis, mais il est préférable dans ce cas d’obtenir de

votre employeur un écrit dans lequel il vous dispense d’effectuer votre

préavis, à titre de preuve toujours.

A savoir également, le refus d’effectuer votre préavis pourrait se

solder par le versement de votre part d’une indemnité à votre employeur

pour « brusque rupture », indemnité équivalant au salaire que vous

auriez perçu pendant votre période de préavis.[/quote]

[Matt09H]

Hi Clair,

thanks for this. This is the problem though...I think they are bending the law and claiming an imaginary 3 month notice period. I do not have a  particularly senior position in the company...junior project manager. I have no staff reporting to me...yet they claim I should work the notice period. I would like to know if they can legally insist on this. From what I have found on the internet I can only see that standard ones are between 4 weeks and 3months..my company claim they never write the notice period in the contract as it is written in French law...yet I do not believe this to be true.

[BJSLIV]

You have said that your job is as a manager so the norm, in the absence of some other specified period in your contract, would  be 3 months. Your employer may be prepared to waive this, but if they do not, and you chooser to walk away they can, and most probably will, sue you for breach of contract.

[RumziGal]

And if your employer doesn't like you, he can invent a "faute grave" for you to have committed and get rid of you on the same day.   

[suein56]

[quote user="Matt09H"]

This is the problem though...I think they are bending the law and claiming an imaginary 3 month notice period. I do not have a  particularly senior position in the company...junior project manager. [/quote]

Can you not negotiate with them? As Clair's quote says: offer to pay them a month's salary or whatever so you can leave early? It might be worth it in these circumstances.

Sue

[Panda]

Hi

Do you really believe that a company would take an employee to court for breach of contract in these circumstances?  I would be inclined to tell the company you will give 4 weeks, this is a fair period on both sides.  I have never heard of anyone being taken to court by a former employee for not adhering to a notice period and in my experience employers tend to avoid any action at all costs as it's time consuming and they would surely need to be able to show some material loss caused by the break of contract.

One thing you haven't said is if you are actually in the middle of a project which you are leading, if you are and you intend to leave half way through they may have a case to use against you, for example if the project missed vital deadlines which leads to a financial loss.  In these circumstances you should tread very carefully and some hard negociations may be required.

As Rumzigal says they could get rid of you quickly if they wanted to and if it were a case that they wanted to get rid of you would they then give you a 3 month pay out in lieu of notice?

In Clairs post it does also say that a period fixed by law is rare so it would seem that they are stretching the truth a little.

Panda

[Charlotte3]

According to ANPE in Mayenne the legal requirement is 2 months for anyone employed by an employer for more than 3 hours per week. If you work less than 3 hours no notice is required.

Because I left my cleaning job (2 hours per week) giving 2 weeks notice, I received a letter from my former employer (a headmistress) slagging me off and telling me how much she had done for me. (Basically how she had taken me from the gutter and put a roof over my head!). You should have seen it, pages and pages of ranting and raving. The woman didn't even pay me minimum wage!

But then, the French are never wrong!

Good luck with everything,

Aly

[Matt09H]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for the tips...I have since managed to negotiate it down to 7 weeks...and this is ok with my new employer in England too.

I still wonder what the legal situation is. I read about the two months notice for anyone working longer than 2 years. Everyone I spoke to at work insists that 3 months is standard. This is even stranger seeing as I have only been in the job for 3 months (although I have been with the company for 4 and a half years). Although I'm a project manager I do not have any staff reporting to me or any projects beyond the next 2 weeks.

Aly - I guess I'm lucky that I didn't have the same manager as you :). The outcome for me is good as both sides are happy.