Dismissal on economic grounds: adjustment and reclassification of employees
Verified 10 September 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
Before proceeding to a economic redundancy, the employer must implement all measures enabling toavoiding redundancies. It has to train and adapt employees to their jobs so that they can eventually be reclassified to another position. The employer must search all the possibilities of reclassification and offer them to employees. We're presenting 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 the job, particularly in the light of changes in jobs and technology.
The employer may dismiss the employee if all possibilities of 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.
Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement
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 group companies located 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.
Répondez aux questions successives et les réponses s’afficheront automatiquement
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
- Classification of the position.
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
- Classification of the position.
This list includes all 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 shall indicate the period within which the employee may 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.
Who can help me?
Find who can answer your questions in your region
Telephone administrative information - Allo Public Service
For more information on this topic, you can contact Allô Service Public.
Attention: the service does not have access to users' personal files and cannot therefore provide information on their status.
He does not respond questions relating to unemployment compensation and representations to France Labor (formerly Pôle emploi), the officials or contractual of the fpublic service, the amount or payment of contributions social, wage or management.
- Lundi : de 08h30 à 17h30
- Mardi : de 08h30 à 12h15
- Mercredi : de 08h30 à 12h15
- Jeudi : de 08h30 à 17h30
- Vendredi : de 13h00 à 16h15
- Service free
The informants who answer you belong to the ministry responsible for labor.
Definition of economic motive
Adaptation and reclassification obligations
Reclassification Offers
Service-Public.fr