Actance Tribune
What's NEW under French Employment Law?
N° 3 – March 7, 2022
The gender equality index
Promoting equality between men and women within companies has become a new challenge for human resources departments.
Several laws have been passed in France in recent years to strengthen this professional equality among employees, but also within the governing bodies.
Since 2019, companies are obliged to measure the gender pay gap every year. They thus calculate a score of up to 100 points, according to a tool called the “Gender equality index”.
The index is calculated based on 4 or 5 indicators:
This score is published on the company’s website and intranet.
Below a certain number of points, companies must take corrective measures to improve gender equality. Otherwise, they expose themselves to a financial penalty.
A new law of 24 December 2021 reinforced this system introducing new obligations:
- The score of companies is now published on the website of the Ministry of Labour;
- In addition to the score, companies must now publish the score obtained per indicator as well as any corrective measures and the progress objectives;
- A sixth indicator was created for companies with at least 1,000 employees and concerns the gap in representation between women and men among senior executives and members of governing bodies.
Companies had, ideally, until 1 March 2022 to calculate their new index and publish it.
Penalties can be as much as 1% of the payroll if:
- The minimum score of 75 points is not achieved within 3 years after the publication of the 1st score;
- The company does not publish its index in accordance with the law.
It should be highlighted that financial penalties are only applied after formal notice from the labour inspectorate. The company thus notified has one month to regularise the situation or to justify the reasons for its failure.
Dismissal on disciplinary reason in France
In France, at-will employment does not exist. An employment contract can only be fairly terminated if based on a “real and serious cause” (“cause réelle et sérieuse”) which can be either an economic or a personal (e.g. misconduct or professional inadequacy) ground.
This does not mean that in case of lack of grounds or in case of lack of evidence of these grounds, the employee cannot be terminated (except for the employees’ representatives whom dismissal must be authorized by the Labour Inspection).
It rather means that the company could be exposed to damages for unfair termination should the employee challenge his/her dismissal before Labour Court.
Various categories of misconduct can be sanctioned:
The following procedure must be followed before any disciplinary dismissal:
- Any disciplinary procedure must be engaged within two months as from the employer – including the manager – discovers the misconduct.
- In case of dismissal for gross or willful misconduct, the departure of the employee is immediate, without any right to a notice period and termination indemnity.
- The dismissed employee as one year as of the notification of his/her dismissal to challenge it before Labour Court.