Section 1: Advance notice and severance pay

Where the dismissal is not for serious misconduct, the employee is entitled : 1° If he has been with the same employer for less than six months, to a notice period, the duration of which is determined by law, the collective labour agreement or, failing that, by local and professional practice; 2° If the employee has been with the same employer for between six months and less than two years,…

Any clause in an employment contract setting a shorter notice period than that resulting from the provisions of article L. 1234-1 or a longer service requirement than that set out in those same provisions is null and void.

The notice period begins on the date of presentation of the registered letter notifying the employee of the redundancy.

Failure to give notice of dismissal does not bring forward the date on which the contract comes to an end.

If the employee does not serve the notice period, he is entitled to compensation unless he is guilty of serious misconduct. Failure to serve the notice period, particularly if the employer waives it, does not entail any reduction in the wages and benefits that the employee would have received if he had worked until the expiry of the notice period, including holiday pay. The compensation in lieu of notice is…

In the event of total or partial non-fulfilment of the notice period resulting either from the temporary or definitive closure of the establishment, or from the reduction of the working hours usually worked in the establishment below the legal working hours, the salary to be taken into consideration is calculated on the basis of the legal or contractual working hours applicable to the company, when the employee was working full-time,…

Termination of the business does not release the employer from the obligation to observe the notice period.

Circumstances leading to the suspension of the employment contract, either by virtue of legal provisions, a collective labour agreement or contractual stipulations, or customary practice, do not affect the employee’s seniority as assessed for the purposes of determining the period of notice provided for in 2° and 3° of article L. 1234-1. However, the period of suspension is not taken into account when determining the length of seniority required to…