Office Romances And Termination Of Employment: The Law In France

Published date22 June 2021
Subject MatterEmployment and HR, Discrimination, Disability & Sexual Harassment, Unfair/ Wrongful Dismissal
Law Firmlus Laboris
AuthorCapstan Avocats

A decision issued by the highest French Court late last year is a good occasion to have a look at the legal framework around romance in the workplace in France and, more generally, whether a fact arising in the employee's private life can justify a termination.

In the matter at hand, two employees had an on-and-off personal relationship for months, with successive break-ups and reciprocal approaches for reconciliation. The female employee informed management of the relationship and complained about the behaviour of the male employee, who used to be her superior.

The employer terminated the male employee for serious misconduct based on the fact that, regardless of any private relationship he had with the female employee, he kept making personal advances, despite her repeated requests for him to stop. The employer further held that the employee kept sending her personal messages on her professional email address and even went on to put a GPS tracker on her car, while she was working, to check whether she was having a personal relationship with another employee. He also allegedly sent anonymous letters to the female employee's companion and mother, mentioning the affair and details about her personal schedule.

The Court confirmed the lower Court's ruling that the termination was not justified because it was based on the employee's private life. The lower Court also found that there was no sexual harassment.

In France, judges maintain a very strict boundary between the employee's professional life and his or her private life. Based on that rule, it is very difficult, for instance, to forbid employees from having personal relationship amongst colleagues, or with subordinates, or to force them to disclose these relationships.

Likewise, an employee cannot be terminated because of a private life event or incident. For instance, an employer cannot terminate an employee because s/he was indicted for a criminal offence that is not related to work (illegally keeping weapons, for example).

To be able to terminate an employee, exceptionally, based on a private life event, the employer must demonstrate that this private event creates a clear, objective disturbance for the business.

That would typically be the case for an indecent assault on an under-aged person if the employee's job involved working with kids. It would also be the case for an employee who was taken into custody and sentenced for violence committed against his girlfriend in an apartment rented to him...

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