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Practical guide
Dismissed from a permanent contract, you are entitled to a minimum payout set by law, unless for serious or gross misconduct, plus other sums on top. This guide explains who qualifies, how it is worked out on two examples, which procedure to check and how long you have to challenge it.
A dismissal ends your permanent contract (CDI) at the employer's initiative. Except for serious or gross misconduct, the law guarantees you a minimum payout, and other sums are added to it. This guide is for you if you have just been called to a preliminary meeting or received your letter: it explains who is entitled to the payout, how it is calculated, what the procedure must respect and how to challenge it. For your exact amount, the redundancy pay tool does the sums.
The conditions, according to service-public.gouv.fr:
Statutory pay is a floor. If your collective agreement or your contract provides a more favourable formula, that one applies; the two are not added together. The name of your collective agreement appears on your payslip: look for its “indemnité de licenciement” section.
Two examples calculated by the site's code, line by line. In the first, a recent bonus lifts the short average; in the second, length of service passes the threshold and brings the second band into play.
| Step | Example 1 | Example 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Length of service, notice included | 6 years and 4 months | 14 years and 9 months |
| Gross average, last 12 months | €2,400 | €3,200 |
| Gross average, last 3 months | €2,520 | Not higher |
| Reference salary used | €2,520 (3-month average) | €3,200 (12-month average) |
| Band up to 10 years (1/4 of a month a year) | €3,990 | €8,000 |
| Band beyond (1/3 of a month a year) | €0 | €5,067 |
| Minimum statutory pay, gross | €3,990 | €13,067 |
What to take away: a recent bonus or pay rise counts through the short average, and each complete month of service, notice included, raises the payout pro rata. Statutory or collectively agreed pay is exempt from income tax, and from contributions up to legal ceilings. Calculation rule in force since 27 September 2017.
For a dismissal on personal grounds, the employer must follow dated steps (service-public.gouv.fr). An irregularity does not necessarily make the dismissal unfair, but it can give a right to compensation.
Dismissal for economic reasons follows another procedure: the employer must try to redeploy you within the company or group, apply selection criteria, consult the works council (CSE) for collective redundancies, and offer you, depending on the size of the company, a professional security contract (CSP) or redeployment leave. You then have priority for re-hiring if you ask for it. The minimum payout is worked out the same way.
Redundancy pay is only one line of your final settlement. Added to it are your salary up to the last day, the notice period (worked and paid, or paid in lieu if the employer releases you from it), pay for untaken holiday, owed even for serious or gross misconduct, and any bonuses provided by your contract. The length of notice by length of service is explained in the notice period guide, the line-by-line check in the final settlement guide, and the calculation of untaken days in the paid holiday guide.
If your employer suggests leaving by mutual agreement instead, compare with the rupture conventionnelle: the same floor, with no length-of-service condition, and an amount that can be negotiated.
You have 12 months from notification of the dismissal to take your case to the employment tribunal (service-public.gouv.fr); for unpaid wages, the limit is 3 years. If the judge finds the dismissal had no real and serious cause, you are awarded compensation within a scale: a minimum and a maximum in months of pay, depending on your length of service and the size of the company, which the service-public.fr simulator shows. The scale does not apply to a void dismissal, for example one linked to harassment or discrimination.
Before taking any step, have your case reviewed: a staff representative, an employee adviser, a trade union or a lawyer will know your collective agreement and the case law, and this guide does not replace their advice. To understand a rule before discussing it, Nego quotes the text and its official source. And for what comes next, the CV analysis tells you what salary to aim for in your next job.
Whichever is more favourable to you. Statutory and collectively agreed pay are not added together: the employer pays the higher one, or the one in your employment contract if that is better still. Many agreements use a different formula, by length-of-service band, age or cadre status: compare the result of their formula with that of the redundancy pay tool.
Yes. The length of service used in the calculation runs until the end of the notice period, even if the employer releases you from working it. The 8-month condition, however, is assessed on the date the dismissal letter is sent: a notice period that takes you past that threshold is not enough to create the right.
Yes. Within 15 days of notification, you can ask the employer in writing to clarify the reason given in the letter; it has 15 days to reply. It can also do so on its own initiative within the same period. These reasons, clarified or not, are what the judge will examine if you challenge the dismissal.
12 months from notification of the dismissal to challenge it before the employment tribunal. To claim unpaid wages, the limit is 3 years; to dispute an amount listed on a final settlement receipt you have signed, it drops to 6 months. Once these limits have passed, the claim can no longer be heard.
This guide gives you a method, not legal advice: the official rules and amounts are those of the sources above, as at their date.
The site's tools and features that go with this guide: the figures there are calculated by the code, never by the AI.