The conflicts that animate the prud’hommes reflect, every day, our social history. The trial is public. Regularly, a journalist for The Express purpose of attending the debates.
Paris (conseil des prud’hommes, a section of the frame, on the 17th of January 2019 14: 30
The president is assisted by two counselors and a counselor. Two lawyers arrive, to represent Gilles (1), and his ex-employer.
The president : What was the salary of the applicant ?
The lawyer Gilles : 8 993 euros of average.
The counsel for the employer : 8 946,60 euros for me.
The president : at Your requests ?
The lawyer Gilles : We claim 71 944 euros in damages and interest for dismissal without cause real and serious, 26 960 euros for moral damages, namely, a dismissal with brutal character and vexatious, 22 000 € prime target for the period from 1 to 31 October 2017 and 3 000 euros to article 700.
The president : We are listening to you.
The lawyer Gilles : We live in a modification of the corporate culture. Let me explain : one is in the presence of a new director, a new director general (DG), which is clear up in the house at the end of a few months.
My client is 56 years old and there are two solutions : either the new discusses, it is happening in the force and he’ll see what happens in front of the council of prud’hommes. You have the answer : six months after the arrival of the new leader, my client is out.
The president : What is the area of activity of the company ?
The lawyer Gilles : It manages a large database of cultural information, including bibliographic, and has 87 employees. My client is the director of projects and IF [information systems]], a member of the Codir [executive committee].
Everything works fine in 2010, 2011 and 2012, where it receives 100 % of his variable compensation. But on April 3, 2013, it was an exchange rather sharp with the leader of the time, they disagree on the strategy. He receives an email : “on the occasion of a dispute, minor…”. It is a crop which could be taken for a warning, nothing else. There is no penalty and yet, after more than three years, we will come out of this incident.
This year, my client receives 73 % of his variable compensation, the same thing in 2014. The company has encountered difficulties. In 2015 and 2016, he receives 82 % of his variable compensation.
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The president : there are assessment interviews ?
The lawyer Gilles : No.
The president : And to set goals ?
The lawyer Gilles : Every year, she receives a note with its objectives. In may 2017, it is the change of DG.
The president : at The last part how ?
The lawyer Gilles : I think it is a resignation. The CA [revenue] is down, the losses worsen, the management wants a new breath. My client will give the best of itself to participate in this renewal. There was no note, no e-mail negative.
Divorced with two children, he enrolled in a real estate project. And boom, the clincher : November 20, 2017, he is summoned to a preliminary interview. It is based on the dispute in April 2013 with the reluctance to put in place the strategy required by the DG, it is criticized for problems with a provider. My client does not understand.
on Friday The 1st of December it is said that it is exempt from notice and that he should not return on Monday 4. As there is no official document on Monday, he wrote to the DG who responds to him by mail that the exemption from work, as he has said. Also on 4 December, his colleagues aghast tell him that his replacement is already in place so that it has not yet been dismissed.
It is extremely humiliating. He received the letter of waiver of notice several days after. The dismissal of verbal implies a termination without cause real and serious. The e-mails of colleagues to prove it.
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The counsel for the employer : The employee receives 10 000 euros per month, but most of all he is not responsible. You want the honors, a title of director, but it refuses to assume the decline in the CA ! “I wasn’t aware of that,” he tells us. It is easy to say it to the bar, but in real life, we talk and we spoke.
This employee has been alerted and is it recovered ? No. On the prime lens which is 22 000 euros to the maximum, it gets 16 000 euros in 2013 and 2014, 18,000 in 2015 and 2016. Why didn’t he make the full ? A part is indexed on the overall results, the other on the assessment of the HR [human resources].
The president : On the kerfuffle of the dismissal verbal ?
The counsel for the employer : the will of The company is expressed even if it arrived late at the home of mr. The verbal exchange has taken place with the gm who told him : “it saves you the time of your presence.” It is no longer useful it comes in the meetings. It is not said that it is the licensee !
the other collaborators interpret a dismissal, it is them as it looks, but we have not the shadow of a proof of termination for verbal. It is a bad trial that is made to the employer.
The president : As stated in the letter of dismissal ?
The lawyer Gilles : To go very fast, I still don’t know if it is on disciplinary grounds or for failure. In the BCO [the bureau of conciliation and direction,ed.], said to me, “a little bit of dthem.” Legally, it is still limited !
I am told that it is licensed for a reluctance systematic at all. It also tells me that he has not been able to limit the costs and that he had a concern with a provider. Who is this provider ? A name is suggested in the preliminary interview. If there are any difficulties experienced, and this is the case, why is the DG-valid-t-it of missions with the provider not reliable ? I have all the evidence in this sense.
The president (counsel for the employer) : Master ?
The counsel for the employer : The first reason is the insufficient professional. The termination letter is accurate, and said to him : “you failed at the title of your director projects.” The company has economic difficulties very important, the new ceo is there to give a new breath of life, we are not in disagreement on this point, but this guy is disinterested in the costs of different providers.
get the price down, it is still his job ! By February 2018, the new DG has obtained less than 40 % on a vendor essential, and in April 18, he put the cost of maintenance of 492,50 euros per day with people from eastern Europe who spoke English as they could up to 200 € with French-speaking interlocutors.
there was a database of V3 that he had to give up because of costs are staggering. On a database, who is responsible, if it is not the DP-IF [project manager-information system, editor’s note]?
No premium for 2017, it is almost common sense. You can imagine the contradiction ? It is licensed and there are economic problems.
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The president called Gilles : Sir, do you want to add something that your lawyer would not have mentioned ?
Gilles : A society of the external audit was mandated to verify my activities. There is nothing that is my responsibility, neither the surcharge nor the rest of me is criticized. There is a chain of responsibilities, I was not the only one to take decisions and I have always scrupulously referred to the DG as a function.
The president : And you have been replaced ?
Gilles : By a friend of the DG then, I had had compliments in public on my work.
The president : Your situation ?
Gilles : 56 years old, divorced, two children. I thought I had passed the change of direction, I made a promise to purchase, I have everything cancelled and I went to live in the province because it is less expensive.
The president (counsel for the employer) : You have the last word.
The counsel for the employer : Mr. is never responsible, never ! Always the other !
15.05. The chair : The debate is closed. Delivered on 18th February.
Verdict : The dismissal is without cause real and serious. The council condemns the ex-employer Gilles to pay 18,000 euros to the title of the bonus on goal by 2017, 63 000 euros of compensation for dismissal without cause real and serious, 9 000 euros of damages for non-pecuniary damage and 1,500 euros to article 700.
The responsibility, the obligations and duties of the employee
The obligations and duties of the employee are part of the employment relationship, and are indicated in the employment contract that binds the parties. The contractual relationship may also make reference to a collective agreement that governs the profession of the employee : in this case, the latter is in fact subject to the fulfilment of its contractual duties and professional and cannot cancel.
However, the salaried employee is never solely responsible for a problem or a good decision, since it is part of a whole and that it is one of the links of the chain of responsibilities. And, refer his actions to his superior in the copying or rerunning to validate a proposal, keep it to the current real-time approaches, the exploration for or the advanced folder are all constraints – sometimes time consuming – for the employee, but the shelter of a grievance is important.
Even in the case of a director on the level of Gilles, he informed his superior – the ceo. It’s mission was to show him the way to go, Gilles had to comply, even if he had the right to raise doubts.
The council was of the view that Gilles was founded to express a contrary opinion, which had not put in danger the future of the company as soon as he had obeyed the management power of the employer. In addition, having informed his hierarchy of all of its dealings with providers and the outcome of the negotiations that were part of its remit, Gilles has downplayed its responsibility in the fall of the CA : the bonus is owed to him.
The deliver his notice in putting in his place his successor is not only a fault of procedure, but is, for Gilles as the council of prud’hommes, a vexatious employer. This is why this request has also been accepted by the judges, regardless of the amount allocated for the dismissal without cause real and serious.
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Carnets de prud’hommes
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(1) The name has been changed
