Under the terms of Article 2048 of the Civil Code, transactions are confined to their object: the waiver made therein of all rights, actions and claims, is understood only as regards what relates to the dispute which gives rise to it.
According to Article R1454-11 of the Labor Code, the subject of the dispute is determined by the respective claims of the parties.
These claims are set out in the document initiating the proceedings and by the conclusions in defense.
The judgment of the Montpellier Court of Appeal, which declared the employee’s claims for payment of damages in respect of the acknowledgement of the termination of her employment contract to be inadmissible, must therefore be overturned on the grounds that the mention in the conciliation report of the payment of damages demonstrated that the sole purpose of this agreement was not the payment of wages but compensation for the loss suffered by the employee as a result of the delay in payment of wages and that resulting from the termination, whereas the act of referral to the interim relief formation of the industrial tribunal was only intended to obtain payment of unpaid wages and the production of end-of-contract documents and it did not appear from the conciliation report that by accepting a sum “as a global, fixed, transactional indemnity and damages to end the dispute”, the employee had irrevocably waived any proceedings or action that had arisen or would arise as a result of the termination of the contract. employment contract.
This is what the social chamber of the Court of Cassation recalls in a decision of February 5, 2025 (no. 23-15.205) published in the Bulletin.
Analysis
This decision marks a rigorous application of the principles governing the transaction and the scope of the conciliation report in labor court matters.
The Court of Cassation recalls that the scope of a transaction cannot be extended beyond the limits clearly defined by the parties. In other words, a general waiver of any recourse clause cannot be presumed: it must be explicitly stipulated and interpreted restrictively.
Thus, conciliation reports in labor court matters cannot be interpreted as a general and absolute waiver of future actions, unless expressly stated to this effect.
This decision therefore encourages caution in drafting settlement agreements in order to avoid any ambiguity regarding the scope of the agreement concluded.
To avoid any subsequent dispute, employers wishing to secure an agreement must ensure that it expressly mentions the rights that the employee waives, specifying that it covers all claims that may arise from the termination of the employment contract.
Conversely, this decision protects employees by preventing an employer from imposing a definitive transaction on the employee on elements not expressly covered by the initial agreement.
It thus protects the latter's right to take action to obtain compensation for damages that were not envisaged during the first conciliation.
Ultimately, a conciliation report can only be an absolute inadmissibility if this results from a clear and indisputable will of the parties.
Finally, as a reminder, Article L1235-1 of the Labor Code provides that
"In the event of a dispute, during the conciliation provided for in Article L1411-1, the employer and the employee may agree or the conciliation and guidance office may propose to terminate it by agreement. This agreement provides for the payment by the employer to the employee of a fixed compensation, the amount of which is determined, without prejudice to legal, conventional or contractual compensation, with reference to a scale set by decree according to the employee's seniority." By decree No. 2016-1582 of November 23, 2016, the conciliation scale was modified in order, on the one hand, to be more attractive to employees and, on the other hand, to be more consistent with the scale (at that date, optional) in the event of dismissal without real and serious cause. This conciliation scale is of fiscal interest to employees, particularly senior executives with a high salary and long seniority since it allows them to avoid the tax exemption limit of 6 PASS (282,600 euros).
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Frédéric CHHUM avocat et ancien membre du conseil de l’ordre des avocats de Paris (mandat 2019-2021)
CHHUM AVOCATS (Paris, Nantes, Lille)
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