Harsh management that may harm subordinates' health qualifies as serious misconduct 

Published on : 21/04/2023 21 April Apr 04 2023

An employee, the general manager of an organization, had harsh management practices with his subordinates. He, for instance, teared up an employee's work in public and issued sharp and contemptuous criticism, as well as orders and counter-orders with little regard for their work, such behaviour being likely to impress and harm the employees’ health. He was dismissed by the organization that employed him for serious misconduct, but the Court of Appeal, while recognizing the existence of a real and serious cause for dismissal, considered that the misconduct was not such as  the employee’s presence within the company’s workforce was impossible, given he had performed his duties for more than 5 years (the test for serious misconduct under French labour law is the impossibility to maintain the employee within the company’s workforce considering the grievances in question).

The French Supreme Court overturned the decision, criticizing the judges reasoning which took into account the employee's seniority in order to exclude serious misconduct on the director’s part. Quite to the contrary, it ruled that management practices likely to impress and harm employees’ health amount to serious misconduct that makes it impossible for the employee to remain within the company’s workforce. 


Cass. soc., March 8th, 2023 n° 21-11.535 F-D

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