[jld89]

There is indeed a lot of red tape but these are the avenues to fire someone:

- Severe underperformance (building of a dossier over months will be necessary for solid proof).

- The employee doesn't come to work anymore without a valid reason

- There is the 'faute grave' reason. It means that the person did something very very bad in the company, for instance sexual assault, or put critical assets in jeopardy, fraud, blatant misbehavior, stuff like that.

Usually there is at least a 8 month probation period (for engineers and most high paying jobs) in which you can fire someone with between 2 days and 2 weeks notice. No need for a reason whatsoever. (This applies to France)

[jylam]

Not "at least", more like "at most". It's 4months + 4months. And you have to "willing-fully" accept the second 4 months (but they can fire you if you don't).

The "faute grave" you are referring to is the "faute lourde", for which the employee voluntarily caused harm to the company. A "faute grave" is more like a big mistake, harassment, misbehavior, etc.

Basically, you can fire anyone you want if you pay for it. But you'll have to pay, and if the employee is not happy with what they receive, they can go to court (which is very long, most of them won't).

[jld89]

Thanks for the corrections! You are of course right, I'm not very up to speed on the different nuances.

If you don't accept the 4 month renewal of the probation period it is usually a firing reason for them... of course YMMV.