Three ways to end a contract, three different exits

Mr Nadal, twelve years of service and 3 200 € gross a month, is torn between resigning and negotiating a mutually agreed termination. The gap between the two routes reaches 10 133.33 € of severance, plus eighteen months of benefit. Before you read on: what really separates these three routes?

What really separates the three routes

The three ways of ending an open-ended contract differ less in procedure than in two consequences: the severance paid to the employee, and whether or not a right to unemployment benefit opens.

Dismissal opens both: statutory severance from eight months of service, and entitlement to benefit. So does a mutually agreed termination, which is what radically distinguishes it from an amicably negotiated resignation.

Resignation opens neither, as a matter of principle. Exceptions exist, notably for legitimate resignations and validated retraining projects, but they must be claimed and are never presumed.

It is that asymmetry which makes mutually agreed termination so sought after. It produces the effects of a dismissal without its grounds, provided both parties genuinely consent and the agreement is approved by the administration.

The notice period, two durations and one start date

The length of the dismissal notice period follows a short ladder of service. Below six months it is set by the collective agreement or by custom. From six months to two years it is one month. From two years it is two months.

These durations are statutory minimums. A collective agreement may provide for longer, never shorter, and it is that agreement which must be consulted before settling on one month or two.

The start date often surprises. The notice period runs from the day the registered dismissal letter is first presented by the postal service, whether or not the employee collects it.

Four situations remove the notice period: gross or serious misconduct, economic dismissal with acceptance of a professional security contract, dismissal for unfitness, and force majeure.

What the notice period suspends, and what it does not

The notice period runs without interruption as a rule. Three events nevertheless suspend it: paid leave scheduled before notification, an accident at work and an occupational illness. Notification during leave pushes back its start.

Ordinary sickness, by contrast, does not suspend the notice period. The contract ends on the date planned, and an employee ill during that period gets no extension — a difference in treatment that is often misunderstood.

The employer may release the employee from working their notice. In that case they pay compensation equal to the salary that would have been earned, and the contract ends on the normal date, not on the day of actual departure.

French law provides no hours for job-seeking during the notice period. They exist only where the collective agreement grants them, or by agreement with the employer — a point to check rather than assume.

A mutually agreed termination has a calendar of its own, which is not a notice period. A withdrawal period of fifteen calendar days runs after signature, during which either party may go back on the agreement without giving reasons.

Then comes approval by the administration, which has fifteen working days to rule. Its silence counts as acceptance, but the contract cannot end before the day after that approval.

Allowing about a month between signature and actual departure is therefore realistic, without that delay opening any right to compensation: it is not a notice period, it is a procedure.