OD FLASH | Approval of a redundancy plan: competence of the regional director delegated by the DREETS in the event of the death of the delegate

Conseil d’État, May 16, 2025, no. 489577

On February 1^,2023, the delegate regional director of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional directorate for the economy, employment, labor and solidarity (DREETS) approved the redundancy plan (PSE) of the Place du Marché company.

Contesting its competence, the company’s social and economic committee (CSE) brought an action before the Lyon administrative court seeking to overturn this decision.

The administrative court rejected the request in a ruling dated June 16, 2023, which was upheld by the Lyon administrative court of appeal on September 26, 2023. The Conseil d’Etat, in turn, ruled on April 17, 2025 on the competence of the regional director of the DREETS to approve the PSE.

The Conseil d’Etat points out that, in the event of compulsory liquidation, the PSE drawn up by the employer, administrator or liquidator must be approved by the regional director of the DREETS within four days of the last meeting of the CSE. The Regional Director is empowered to delegate his or her signature to other officials, such as division heads or departmental directors, for the purpose of exercising his or her powers in the field of labor law inspection.

He also points out that one authority may deputize for another, in the event of the latter’s absence or inability to act, if he is entitled to do so by virtue of both his hierarchical rank and his role within the department. In such a case, an administrative act signed by this authority cannot be vitiated by incompetence, even if it does not expressly mention substitution, provided that the absence or impediment of the titular authority is proven.

In this case, the competent authority, namely the regional director of the DREETS, had delegated to the deputy regional director the power to sign the PSE approvals in the event of absence or impediment of the deputy director, head of the relevant division. Although this delegation was irregular, as the beneficiary was neither head of division nor head of territorial unit, the Conseil d’Etat validated the disputed act. In fact, given his hierarchical position and role, the delegated regional director had a duty to deputize for the regional director who was unable to attend. This situation was all the more justified in that the deputy director, who held a regular delegation, had died.

The Conseil d’Etat thus considered that the court had given sufficient reasons for its decisions, and had neither erred in law nor misrepresented the case file.

As a result, even in the absence of proper delegation, the regional director of the DREETS was competent to approve the PSE in his capacity as deputy.