Your employer assigns you tasks that are higher than those for which you were recruited. Do they have to be accompanied by an increase in your remuneration? As soon as the new tasks and the related remuneration have been accepted by the employee, the failure to award a salary increase linked to higher duties does not necessarily constitute a serious breach by the employer of his contractual obligations. This was recalled by the Court of Cassation in a judgment of 5 May 2021.
An employee, hired as an operating room nurse in September 1992, was last employed as director of hospital care since 2009.
He was dismissed in 2012 for prolonged absence requiring his replacement.
Court of Appeal Orders Employer to Pay €40,000 of damages to the employee on the ground that his salary did not change when he changed function in 2009, becoming the director he is today. The Court considers that this constitutes a serious breach by the employer of its contractual obligations.
The Court of Cassation disagrees. It considers that once the employee had accepted, without dispute, the amendment of his employment contract, the employer does not commit any breach.
