OD FLASH | The procedure for approving an individual contractual termination does not have to be repeated if the file is incomplete

Cass. soc., 19 juin 2024, nº 22-23.143

The question raised in this judgment of 19 June was whether an employer could regularise an application for approval of a termination agreement initially declared inadmissible by the administrative authority without having to start the procedure all over again.

In this case, an employer and an employee jointly signed a contractual termination agreement with effect from 22 July 2020.

The employee brought the matter before the Labour Court, requesting that the termination of the contract be annulled on the grounds that the salary amounts indicated on the CERFA form were incorrect. The employee argued that the employer had not reopened the case after the administration’s decision that the claim was inadmissible and had limited itself to making observations without changing the amount of the salary. The Labour Court then annulled the decision to tacitly approve the termination of the contract on this ground.

The employer appealed. In a decision dated 19 December 2022, the Court of Appeal of Reims overturned the decision of the labour court and dismissed the employee’s claim for annulment of the termination agreement, on the grounds that the employer had provided the necessary explanations to the authorities, was not obliged to change the amount of the wages and had complied with the notice period. Consequently, the essential formalities of the termination agreement had been complied with and the Council could not declare the approval null and void.

In her appeal, the employee contested the position adopted by the Court of Appeal, arguing in particular that :

– The 15-day cooling-off period had not been respected, as the employer had not restarted the procedure following the administration’s decision that the application was inadmissible;

– The employer failed to comply with the statutory time limits by not submitting a new application with the missing information and by not complying with the time limits set out in the Labour Code.

The Court of Cassation dismissed the employee’s appeal, holding that the Court of Appeal was correct in holding that the employer was not required to restart the procedure for terminating the contract after the decision rejecting the request for approval of the termination agreement, and that the mere fact of providing explanations to the authorities, without changing the amount of salary initially indicated in the request, meant that it could be concluded that the essential formalities of termination had been complied with.

The procedure was therefore in order and did not need to be repeated.