Notice period in France: length, waiver, pay

Notice, the préavis, is the period between announcing the end of the contract and the end itself. You keep working and being paid as usual, the employer arranges your replacement, and you arrange what comes next. Its length follows different rules depending on whether you resign or are dismissed, and being released from it affects your pay differently depending on who asks. This guide goes through the cases, with an example worked out by the site.

Resignation: the law sets no length

For a resignation, there is no general statutory length: it comes from the collective agreement or a company agreement, failing that from the employment contract, failing that from the custom of the trade or the area. A few occupations have their own rules in the Labour Code (journalists, sales representatives), as do some employees in Alsace-Moselle. Agreements usually set longer periods for cadres than for other staff: find your agreement on your payslip, then its chapter on ending the contract. Notice runs from when the resignation is notified: first delivery attempt of the registered letter, or handing it over in person. How to resign and what you receive when you leave are in the guide on resignation and pay.

Dismissal: a statutory minimum

On dismissal, the law sets a minimum notice period according to your length of service on the day the employer sends the letter. The collective agreement, the contract or custom may provide more; the most favourable length then applies. Notice starts on the first delivery attempt of the registered letter, even if you do not collect it.

An employee recognised as disabled is entitled to double, up to 3 months. There is no notice for serious or gross misconduct, dismissal for unfitness for work, joining a career transition scheme (contrat de sécurisation professionnelle) or force majeure. Everything else owed to a dismissed employee is in the guide on dismissal and severance pay.

Mutual termination, fixed-term contracts, probation

• Mutual termination: no notice. The end date is chosen in the agreement, at the earliest the day after official approval (see mutual termination).
• Fixed-term contract: there is no resignation with notice. If you leave before the end date because you are hired on a permanent contract, you owe notice of 1 working day per week of contract, 2 weeks at most, unless you agree to leave sooner (see fixed-term or permanent).
• Probation period: no notice either, but a shorter warning period, which depends on how long you have been there and on who ends it. The guide on the probation period gives the lengths.

Release from notice: who asks, who pays

The employer can release you from working your notice, and you cannot object. It then pays you compensation equal to the salary and benefits you would have received by working. If you are the one asking to leave early, the employer is free to refuse; if it agrees, it owes you nothing for the period not worked. In both cases you can start elsewhere straight away, and the contract's end date does not move: the end of the notice period still counts for length of service and the end-of-contract papers.

Example: an employee paid €3,000 gross a month is dismissed with 4 years of service. The statutory notice is 2 months, and the employer releases them from working it.

Calculation: notice and severance pay by the site's statutory rules, net estimated by the modele-social publicodes engine as that many months of salary. Pay in lieu of notice bears contributions and tax like salary. The severance pay calculator redoes the calculation with your own length of service, notice included.

During the notice period

• You work and are paid as usual until the last day: salary, bonuses and benefits are still owed, and you keep earning holiday.
• Time off to look for a job is not provided by the Labour Code. Your collective agreement or custom may grant it, paid or unpaid; otherwise you need the employer's agreement to be absent, which it may refuse if you have already found a job.
• Holiday booked before the announcement suspends the notice, which is extended by the same amount; holiday booked afterwards does not extend it. If you are notified during your holiday, notice only starts when you return. After a resignation, the employer cannot force you to take your holiday during the notice period.
• Time off after a workplace accident or occupational illness suspends the notice, which resumes when you return.

Shortening your notice

When a new employer wants you to start soon, the right approach is a precise written request: a leaving date, a handover plan, the work you will wrap up first. A partial release (leaving halfway through the notice, for instance) is often easier to obtain than leaving straight away. Before signing with the new employer, check that the start date allows for your actual notice, and weigh the unpaid salary you would give up against what you gain by starting sooner: if the new job pays more, the job offer comparison works out the gap.