Your company is experiencing significant economic difficulties, to the extent that you need to consider laying off between 2 and 9 employees for economic reasons.
Here are the 10 most important steps to follow.
Step1: determining the order of redundancies according to legal or contractual criteria.
Please note: this is a mandatory step. If it is not complied with, you may be fined and ordered to pay damages to the dismissed employee.
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Stage 2: the duty to adapt and reclassify
Prior to any redundancies, the employer must implement all measures to avoid layoffs.
We therefore need to adapt employees to their jobs as much as possible, to enable them to be redeployed to other positions.
Initially, the employee should be offered positions in the same category. If no such position is available, the search should be extended to other jobs, including those that the employee could do after training to adapt to the job. This training must be of short duration.
This obligation applies to all companies, regardless of their size, and to all redundancies, regardless of the number of employees made redundant.
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Stage 3: mandatory consultation of the Social and Economic Committee (CSE)
In companies with at least 11 employees, the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) must be convened and consulted in the event of collective redundancies involving 2 to 9 employees.
The Social and Economic Committee must be provided with a certain amount of information concerning the proposed mass redundancies.
Legal provisions stipulate only one meeting of the CSE. In practice, two meetings are generally held within the company: the first to inform the employee representatives of the redundancy project, and the second to answer any questions and consult the CSE.
It must give its opinion within one month of the first meeting at which it is consulted, failing which it will be deemed to have been consulted.
Please note: in companies without a CSE, a procès-verbal de carence is required, otherwise the redundancy will be irregular.
The employees concerned would then be entitled, in addition to severance pay and compensation in lieu of notice, to specific compensation equal to at least one month’s gross salary.
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Step 4: Transmission of the minutes of the meeting with the CSE to the regional directorate for the economy, employment, labor and solidarity in your area.
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Step 5: Invitation to a preliminary interview
The letter convening the employee to a preliminary interview must be sent to the employee by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, or by hand-delivered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. It must contain the obligatory information required for this type of letter.
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Step 6: The preliminary interview
The preliminary interview may not take place less than 5 working days after presentation of the letter convening the preliminary interview.
During this interview, the employee should be informed of the reasons for the decision, and given the documents relating to the contrat de sécurisation professionnel. The employee should also be reminded of the possibility of contacting services, in particular the public employment service, which can help him or her make a decision in full knowledge of his or her rights.
Reminder: the employee has 21 calendar days in which to accept or reject the contrat de sécurisation professionnel.
This cooling-off period begins the day after the employer hands over the CSP information document.
This period must be respected in its entirety, even if the employee accepts or refuses the proposal during this period.
The dismissal cannot take effect before the end of this cooling-off period.
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Step 7: Notification of redundancy for economic reasons
The letter of notification of redundancy for economic reasons may be sent to the employee before the end of the cooling-off period.
It should then remind the employee of the date on which the cooling-off period expires, and explain that if he refuses, this letter will serve notice of his dismissal.
Please note: in the case of small-scale collective redundancies, the redundancy letter can only be sent to the employee after 7 working days.
This letter must include, among other compulsory details, a statement that the employee has priority of re-employment for a period of one year from the date of termination of the employment contract, and the conditions for implementing this priority.
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Step 8: Notification of dismissal to the authorities
The DREETS must be notified of the redundancy within 8 days of the redundancy letter being sent to the employee. This notification is made via an appropriate website.
Important: if one of the proposed dismissals concerns a protected employee, you will also need to obtain authorization from the labor inspectorate for this dismissal.
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Step 9: Notice of termination
The employee may be exempted from the notice period, which may also be waived if he or she has accepted a contrat de sécurisation professionnelle.
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10th and final stage: termination of the employment contract
The employee receives compensation for the termination of his or her employment contract.
You’ll also need to hand over your end-of-contract documents.
This type of dismissal is a delicate procedure to implement within a company, and is subject to a number of imperative formalities.
CABINET DESRUMAUX AVOCATS is at your disposal to help you implement these procedures.
