Negotiated termination in France (rupture conventionnelle): minimum payment, withdrawal, approval and time limit to challenge

The employer and an employee on a permanent contract (CDI) may agree together on the terms for ending the contract. A negotiated termination is distinct from dismissal and resignation, and it cannot be imposed by either party (article L1237-11). It results from an agreement signed by both parties.

The parties agree on the principle of the termination at one or more meetings. The employee may be assisted by a person of their choice from the company’s staff or, where there is no staff representative body, by an employee adviser (conseiller du salarié); the employer may then also be assisted, after informing the employee (article L1237-12).

• One or more meetings, with possible assistance (L1237-12).
• Signature of the agreement, which sets the amount of the specific payment and the termination date (L1237-13).
• Withdrawal period of 15 calendar days from signature by both parties, by letter whose date of receipt can be proved (L1237-13). Withdrawal is valid if the letter is sent within the period, even if received later (Cass. soc., 14 February 2018, no. 17-10.035).
• At the end of that period, the party that acts first sends the approval request (homologation) to the administration, with a copy of the agreement (L1237-14).
• Review within 15 working days of receipt of the request; without a reply, approval is deemed granted. The agreement is valid only once approved (L1237-14).
• End of the contract on the date set in the agreement, at the earliest the day after approval (L1237-13).
• Challenge before the labor court within 12 months of approval, failing which the claim is inadmissible (L1237-14).

Agreement signed on Friday, 6 March 2026. Fifteen calendar days later, the withdrawal period ends on Saturday, 21 March 2026, a non-working day: the calculator extends it to Monday, 23 March 2026. To be safe, the approval request is sent after that date, and the termination date in the agreement must leave time for the review (15 working days).

The period runs from the day after signature. Where it ends on a Saturday, Sunday or public or non-working holiday, it is extended to the next working day: article R1231-1 provides this for the time limits of the Labor Code title on termination of permanent contracts, which includes negotiated termination. The time limit to challenge (12 months) runs from the date of approval, express or implied.

The specific negotiated termination payment cannot be lower than statutory dismissal pay under article L1234-9 (article L1237-13). It is therefore calculated the same way: a quarter of a month’s salary per year of service up to ten years, a third of a month beyond that (R1234-2), on the more favourable reference salary between the last 12 and the last 3 months (R1234-4).

The statutory floor is only a minimum. Amendment no. 4 of 18 May 2009 to the national inter-industry agreement (ANI) of 11 January 2008 provides that the specific payment cannot be lower than the collective-agreement dismissal pay where that is more favourable than the statutory amount. It does not apply to companies that are not members of a signatory organisation (MEDEF, CGPME now CPME, UPA now U2P) and whose business does not fall under a sector agreement signed by a member federation: statutory pay is then enough (Cass. soc., 27 June 2018, no. 17-15.948). Check this point on each matter; above the floor, the amount is freely negotiated.

Five years and four months of service, reference salary €2,700: 5.3333 years × 1/4 = 1.3333 months, i.e. a floor of €3,600.

Six months of service, reference salary €2,400: 0.5 year × 1/4 = 0.125 month, i.e. €300. The 8-month service condition applies to dismissal (L1234-9). For a negotiated termination, the administration accepts a payment pro rata to the months of presence (DGT circular no. 2009-04 of 17 March 2009, issued under the former one-year threshold); we found no Cour de cassation ruling on this point. Jurisvio calculates this pro rata amount: check it on your matter.

• Consent: the termination cannot be imposed (L1237-11). A dispute between the parties does not in itself affect the validity of the agreement (Cass. soc., 23 May 2013, no. 12-13.865), nor do acts of moral harassment absent a defect of consent (Cass. soc., 23 January 2019, no. 17-21.550). However, a situation of moral duress resulting from harassment vitiates consent (Cass. soc., 30 January 2013, no. 11-22.332).
• Handing a signed copy of the agreement to the employee: it is needed for the approval request and so that the employee can exercise the right of withdrawal with full knowledge; without it, the agreement is void (Cass. soc., 6 February 2013, no. 11-27.000). It is not presumed from a statement that the agreement was “drawn up in two copies” (Cass. soc., 3 July 2019, no. 18-14.414): keep proof of it.
• The termination date: at the earliest the day after approval (L1237-13); a date too close to signature means it has to be moved.
• The compensation scale of article L1235-3 does not apply to the negotiated termination itself. If the agreement is annulled, the termination takes effect as a dismissal without real and serious cause and the employee repays the payment received (Cass. soc., 30 May 2018, no. 16-15.273): the scale becomes the reference again. If the annulment is due to a defect in the employer’s consent, the termination takes effect as a resignation (Cass. soc., 19 June 2024, no. 23-10.817).
• Outside the scope of this article: protected employees, whose negotiated termination requires the labor inspector’s authorisation, and the social-security and tax treatment of the payment, which changes with the social security financing acts.

The severance calculator gives the floor of the specific payment, with its steps and articles, and accepts the collective-agreement amount you have calculated separately. The deadline calculator includes the 15-day withdrawal period and the 12-month challenge period, with the detail of any extension. The examples in this article are calculated by the same functions.