Sexist comments and behaviour constitute an « ambient harassment » of a sexual nature
CA Paris 26 th november 2024, n°21/10408

The Paris Court of Appeal judged that an employee who worked in an open-space environment with colleagues who exchanged sexist photographs and sexist comments by e-mail suffered an “ambient harassment” of a sexual nature, given the proximity of her workstations and the fact that she worked exclusively on a computer. As a result, although she was not being directly targeted, she could not escape this work environment and the sexist photographs exchanged in the workplace.

Dismissal of an employee who has not received a notice to attend a preliminary interview is unlawful
Cass.soc. 11 th december 2024 n°22-18.362

For the first time, the Court of Cassation has ruled that the fact that an employee did not receive a notice to attend a preliminary interview due to an error made by the Post Office (he was not at home when the registered letter was delivered and the Post Office had not sent him a notice stating that the letter was available at the post office) rendered the dismissal procedure unlawful, as the employee did not have the statutory period of 5 working days to prepare his defense, which justifies the payment of compensation for non-compliance with the procedure.

Unfitness: employer who delays initiating the reclassification procedure is considered to be at fault
Cass.soc. 4 th december 2024, n°23-15.337

A significant and unjustified delay (in this case a delay of 7 months) in seeking to redeploy an employee who is unfit for work, which has resulted in the employee being left in a situation of forced inactivity, constitutes a breach by the employer of its obligation to perform the employment contract in good faith and justifies the judicial termination of the employment contract to the detriment of the employer.

Disciplinary lay-off of protected employee does not require their consent
Cass.soc. 11 th december 2024, n°23-13.332

The Court of Cassation has ruled that the disciplinary layoff of a protected employee, which does not suspend the exercise of its mandate as employee representative and does not entail any modification of the employment contract or change in working conditions, is not subject to the protected employee’s agreement.

The value-sharing bonus for 2025 (“prime de partage de la valeur”): the preferential social and tax regime continues to apply

Despite the censure of the last government and the rejection of the Social Security Financing Bill (PLFSS) for 2025, the social and tax regime for the value-sharing bonus remains unaffected. Consequently, the social and tax exemptions from which this bonus benefits remain unchanged and continue to apply under the conditions set out in article 1 of the law of August 16, 2022 n°2022-1158 until December 31, 2026.