French worker sacked for working at home - from Canada - loses appeal

A woman who was sacked for working for her French employer from home in Canada has lost her appeal.

The worker, who has not been formally identified, was employed by Olinda SAS, which runs the Qonto online bank.

She had a contrat de travail à durée indéterminée (CDI) with the company as a workflow analyst and quality controller, and had gone on holiday to Canada in the summer of 2020.

When her flight home was cancelled, the company agreed she could work provisionally by télétravail from Canada until she could return to France.

During the second Covid lockdown, the firm allowed home-working in foreign countries, provided they were in a time zone of not more than a two-hour difference with Paris – Canada is at least six hours behind.

The worker then decided she wanted to emigrate to Canada and told the company she would resign in December, when a job she was working on was due to end.

However, she did not resign and continued working as normal.

When the company asked employees to send in the addresses they were working from, she did not respond. In addition, her boss started questioning why she was so unproductive during Paris mornings – when it was still night in Canada.

Things came to a head in March 2021 when she eventually admitted she was working from Canada and asked for adjustments to allow for Canadian working hours.

Her company refused and told her to report for work in the office. When she did not, she was fired immediately.

Read more: Self-employed workers in France to be given improved asset protection

Unlawful dismissal claim

The worker took Olinda to the conseil de prud’hommes in Paris, claiming unlawful dismissal.

Judges supported the company based on two arguments. 

Firstly, the risk faced by the firm by having an employee work in Canada who was not authorised by the Canadians and who exposed it to trouble over data protection laws.

And, secondly, the worker’s failure to give her address when asked, concealment of the fact she was working abroad, and failure to present herself in Paris when asked.

However, while the dismissal was legitimate, doing it on the spot without a formal disciplinary process was wrong, it ruled, and the worker was awarded a couple of months’ salary.

Home-working (télétravail) is now a common part of the French job scene.

Resisted by French employers for years, often with the support of unions which did not want to see historic workplace privileges upset, télétravail burst into the workplace with the Covid lockdowns.

A study published in November showed 26% of French workers did their job from home at least part of the time in 2023, compared to 9% in 2019.

Of the remaining 74% of the workforce, only one in 10 said it would be possible to do their work from home.

Collective agreements now dominate many industries in France and specify how long staff can spend working from home, and when they should be in the office.

Working from home essential checklist 

Working legally from home in France as a salaried employee of a UK company is possible – but complicated.

There are three basic criteria to be checked off: 

• You have the right to work in France, either by having an EU passport or a carte de séjour under the UK WARP (Withdrawal Agreement Residency Permit) terms.

• You have sorted your own tax and social security arrangements. Tax is relatively straightforward but differences in social security and employment law are more complex. For example, France’s compulsory retirement system is very different from the UK model.

• Your employer will need to register in France, be subject to French employment law for you, and pay all payroll taxes and social security contributions. A special section of Urssaf called titre firmes étrangères (TFE) offers a free service to help with the administration.

Anecdotal evidence is that UK firms are often reluctant to jump through the hoops, and suggests that employees often resign and then do the same work on a freelance basis.

This is possible in France as long as you are registered (auto-entreprener, entreprise individuelle etc), the work is all done in France, all your pay is transferred by you or your employer into a French bank account, and you declare it each year in your tax return.