Dismissal on economic grounds: adjustment and reclassification of employees

Verified 24 March 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Before making an economic dismissal, the employer must take all measures to avoid dismissals. It has to adapt employees to their job so that they can eventually be reclassified to another position.

What are the employers concerned ? What reclassification offers can be offered? How is the proposal for reclassification to the employee?

We are taking stock of the regulations.

Throughout the duration of the employment contract, the employer must ensure that the employee is adjusted to his or her work position.

It must preserve the employee's ability to remain in his job, in the light of changes in employment, and in particular in technology.

The employer may dismiss the employee only if all possibilities for training and adaptation have been carried out so that the employee retains his position or is reclassified to another available position.

It can thus offer additional training of short-lived allowing a quick setup on the station.

All employers are affected by the reclassification obligation whatever the number planned redundancies and regardless of the size of the company.

In order to avoid economic redundancy, the employer must seek out retraining opportunities and offer them to employees.

Priority, the employer offers the employee a job of the same category as the one he is holding (or an equivalent job) with an equivalent remuneration.

If no job is available, the employer must extend his search to the jobs which the employee could perform after training enabling him to adapt to that job.

Please note

job-specific training is not initial training. It's from short-lived to ensure quick setup on the station.

The employer may propose, with the agreement of the employee, a job of a lower category and lower pay.

The proposed new position may take the form of a DTA: titleContent or a CSD: titleContent, full-time or part-time with the agreement of the employee.

The staging search scope differs if the company belongs to a group or not.

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The company is not part of a group

The search for reclassification is performed on the positions available in the company.

The company is part of a group

When the company is part of a group, the employer extends its search to all companies in the group located in France.

Please note

if the company belongs to an international group, this search is performed only in France.

The employer has 2 possibilities to offer reclassification offers:

  • Or it sends each employee a personalized offer,
  • Or it distributes to all employees the list of available positions.

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Custom Offer

Reclassification offers are written, precise and concrete.

They must specify the following mentions :

  • Position title and description
  • Employer Name
  • Nature of the employment contract
  • Position Location
  • Amount of remuneration
  • Position Classification

The letter of proposal for reclassification shall specify the period within which the employee shall reply. It shall also indicate the form of the reply (e.g. registered letter with notice of receipt).

Dissemination of the list of available posts

The employer shall by any means communicate the list of available posts to all employees. For example, the employer can use the company's intranet.

Reclassification offers are written, precise and concrete.

They must specify the following mentions :

  • Position title and description
  • Employer Name
  • Nature of the employment contract
  • Position Location
  • Amount of remuneration
  • Position Classification

This list includes the whole available posts located in France in the company, and in the other companies of the group of which the company is a member, located in France.

It specifies the criteria for distinguishing between employees in the case of multiple applications for the same post.

The list indicates the time available to the employee to apply.

This period must be at least 15 free days as of the distribution of the list.

Please note

in companies subject to recovery or a judicial liquidation, the period shall be at least 4 clear days.

If the employee accepts an offer to reclassify, he or she shall inform the employer in writing, within the time limit provided for in the reclassification proposal.

He can be reclassified to the position he has accepted.

Where the employer has offered a reclassification position to several employees, it cannot guarantee the employee that the proposed reclassification position will be allocated to him if he accepts it. The employer must take into account the applications of the other employees concerned by the reclassification offer.

The employee may refuse the proposed reclassification offer. The employer must continue to seek reclassification until the dismissal has been notified.

If, despite all its efforts to find out, no further reclassification could be found, the employer could dismiss the employee on economic grounds.

If the employee refuses all the proposed reclassification offers, the employer may dismiss him for economic reasons.

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