French Mutual Termination Agreement — Cerfa 14598 Guide

A rupture conventionnelle is a mutually agreed termination of a French permanent employment contract (CDI — contrat à durée indéterminée). Unlike a resignation, it requires the genuine consent of both parties and follows a structured legal procedure under the French Labour Code. The employee receives a dedicated severance payment and, crucially, retains the right to claim unemployment benefits (allocation chômage) from France Travail — a major advantage that distinguishes this mechanism from a voluntary resignation, which carries no such entitlement.

After both parties sign Cerfa 14598, a mandatory 15-calendar-day cooling-off period (délai de rétractation) begins. During this window, either the employer or the employee may withdraw from the agreement without giving any reason — typically by sending a registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. The homologation request can only be submitted to the DREETS after this period has fully elapsed; any request submitted earlier is procedurally defective and will be rejected by the administration.

The indemnité spécifique de rupture conventionnelle cannot be lower than the statutory redundancy payment (indemnité légale de licenciement). Under the French Labour Code, this minimum is generally calculated at one quarter of a month's gross salary per year of service for the first ten years, and one third per year thereafter. Both the employee's length of service (ancienneté) and their gross reference salary feed into the calculation, which must be documented on Cerfa 14598 before both parties sign.

The DREETS (Direction régionale de l'économie, de l'emploi, du travail et des solidarités — France's regional labour authority) reviews and approves the agreement. After receiving the signed Cerfa 14598 via TéléRC, the DREETS has 15 working days (jours ouvrables) to homologate or refuse. If it issues no decision within that deadline, homologation is deemed automatically granted — a principle known in French administrative law as 'silence vaut approbation' (silence equals approval).

The rupture conventionnelle is available only to employees holding a permanent contract (CDI) in the private sector. Fixed-term contracts (CDD) and public-sector employment are excluded. Additional rules apply to employees with protected status, such as elected members of the CSE (Comité Social et Économique — the unified employee representative body established by the 2017 Macron labour reform ordinances): in those cases, the Labour Inspectorate (Inspection du travail) must issue prior authorisation before the DREETS can homologate the agreement, adding an extra step and timeline to the process.

If the DREETS refuses homologation, the employment contract continues unchanged and the termination has no legal effect. The refusal must be reasoned and notified to both parties. Typical grounds include a severance amount below the legal minimum, absence of genuine consent, or procedural defects such as an insufficient cooling-off period or a missing signature. The parties may correct the identified issues and submit a fresh convention — the 15-calendar-day cooling-off period must be observed again from the date of the new signature.